Transcripts For CNN CNN Presents 20110214 : vimarsana.com

real estate broker. they haven t paid their own mortgage in two years. now, they could lose it all. today, they re headed to a meeting with the housing counselor who s working to save their home. do you remember the day you moved in? october 12th, 2002. it was rainy. reporter: oh, no. oh, no. just the messiest day. reporter: that s terrible. it was sunshine in our hearts. reporter: they lived in a 3500 square foot four bedroom home on a corner lot complete with a four car garage for their bmws. this is the living room. i m a girl from newark, new jersey. we grew up in a one bedroom aftermath, four girls and one boy. i would always say, i can t wait until i get grown, i will buy the biggest house, i will do this. reporter: they did it but refinanced twice and then the economy tanked, taking their commission-based incomes with it. we have a window in the basement already. reporter: this house has been home to some of their best memories. coming down on christmas day, little mya. reporter: holidays. parties. their daughter, mya, getting ready for the junior prom. everybody get a camera. reporter: unless the jeffries can make some major changes in their finances, the bank is going to take their home. and their lifestyle and everything they ve built will be gone. y all look so beautiful. i just ask god whatever my parents are going through, that he ll help them and i get on my knees and pray before i go to bed. oh, my goodness. let s give god some praise. reporter: the jeffries are drowning in the kind of debt their pastor, bust store preaches against every sunday. live within your means. people that don t manage their money wisely are not managing our lives wisely. reporter: he is the senior pastor at first baptist church of lincoln gardens in central new jersey. he s on a crusade. he thinks black america has a new enemy. is debt a bigger problem than racism? yes. debt is a bigger problem than racism. reporter: you didn t hesitate. no question debt is a bigger problem than racism. reporter: it s a provacative theory but he stands by his claim. 1 out of 5 of us has no bank account. we still do payday loans, we still do rent to own. but, you see, we ll drive shiny cars and we ll wear designer clothes, and we have all of the appearances of doing well but we won t admit that we re broke. being in debt is slavery. when i m paying last month s bills with next month s check that s slavery. when i m writing a check hoping it doesn t bounce or when i pull out my credit card praying it s not rejected, i m living in financial bondage. reporter: it s a problem exacerbated in today s economy, the worst since the depression. economists say the crisis is rooted in the past. the african-american community is economically more fragile because wealth is a function of generational accumulation. we were some other people s accumulation historically. so we re 100200 years reporter: because of slavery and jim crowe. exactly. reporter: we haven t that the opportunity. are we still reaping it today? yes, we re still reaping it today. reporter: blacks still have on average $75,000 less in wealth than whites. wealth is everything of value that you own minus debts. you can go from 25% to 7%, you ll be surprised to know how much money you can save. reporter: buster wants to close this gap and build african-american wealth by lowering african-american debt. the church has long been considered the most important and influential institution in the black community. for good reason. it played a key role in the nation s fight for racial equality and it always provided a safety net, and opportunities for advancement. today is the fifth anniversary of our ministry and part of our celebration was i was giving you your brand-new defre e-cards. reporter: his celebration is what he calls dfree. yes to no debt on the front. reporter: d stands for debts, deficits and dli s delinquencie? i promise to pay my debts on time. dfree living. reporter: he established the foreclosure prevention program fighting to keep the bank from auctioning off the jeffrey s home. they re coming with you now? okay. thank you. reporter: they don t have much time. if their lender doesn t agree to lower the payments soon, the next step could be a hearing where they could lose their home. reporter: as pastor sor ries works to help the jeffries pay off their debt. his solution for this high school senior may force him to acquire it. i want to go to school. i think school is something i need, will mature me, make me a better person. make me the person i want to be. i ain t an afraid of you either. you know why, i m not you. reporter: fred is an aspiring actor and his goal is to get into a college drama program. i will never allow a man to control me and control what i do. less than a quarter of fred s friends will ever finish college, ever. half of fred s peers have not finished high school. it s important to build into the life of a guy like fred some achievement of something that s recognized by society. secondly, because he will have a higher earning power. reporter: but before fred can tap into that higher earning power, he has to get accepted and he has to raise money for tuition. 81% of black college students graduate owing money on loans. good morning. today, i will be performing a monologue. reporter: a win at a national acting competition could lower the amount he needs in loans. i am my own man. reporter: church member, carl fields, is in the competition of his life, too, against a sea of younger men and women, all vying for the same jobs? you cannot complete the application without indicating your date of birth. it gives an employer an opportunity to weed you out. reporter: after 25 successful years rising through the ranks at an insurance brokerage firm to become a vice president, this is one position he never imagined he d be in. i will print both of these out. it becomes part of my job application pile i have. lord, i know you have something special in store for me. reporter: he s confident god has a plan for him, even if he doesn t quite see it yet. i m just saying when, lord? when are you going to bring this to pass? 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[ boy ] ba da ba ba ba , , , la ooh, ahe announcer ] the ila, la, la a happy meal. ooh, ah la, la, la ooh, ah la, la, la ooh, ah la, la, la [ dance beat ] [ male announcer ] join theladders.com. the $100k+ job search specialists. that give you the tools and guidance you need to be irresistible. reporter: fred dreams of becoming somebody. i pray for this audition and give him the strength to have every line into memorization. reporter: first, he must get into college and find money to pay for it. stay focused and completely block everyone out. reporter: today he s auditioning to get into the drama program. good afternoon. when ever you re ready. i hate you! you know that? you know that? yeah, you, too, because now, you turned your head, you ain t looking at me no more. reporter: while fred acts, christie adams it was. christie is the 28-year-old youth minister at buster sorees church. we have so much to be greatsful for. we spend so much time complaining. 14e has a masters of divinity. without being humble, if you were not here, would he make the spot? believe yes because of motivation. if i wasn t here or anybody pushing him, i think he would be a lot more nervous and think he would probably choke. reporter: has he choked before? yes. reporter: they met more than a year ago when fred auditioned for a church play. why do you think they believe in you so much? i don t know. i think god definitely has a place for it. like he didn t bring us together for no reason. for every little piece to the puzzle reporter: yes, lord, we hear you, the wind. fred s mom, delores, is a single mother. she immigrated from jamaica in 1986. we re going to get you all cleaned up, all right? reporter: she works two jobs, as nurse s assistant and home health aide to make ends meet. i happy to know he has people in his life who cares for him, people that if i m not around, he has people he can really rely on, he can, you know, run to. this is the application. what was the s.a.t. reporter: christie stepped up as fred s mentor. her church and now his extended family. i m saving the application. the key is for someone like christie to leverage our institutional resources and my personal capacity and make it available for the young people who have the desire to grow. i want to thank y all for keeping me on the straight path instead of the other way i could have gone. reporter: the church has filled a hole left by fred s older brother, kirk. we were always together. he always made sure i had food to eat or make sure i had clothes to go back to school in, all that. the only problem with him, though, was that he was on drugs. a couple of charges came up. reporter: he got caught? a couple times, yeah. and three years ago, they deported him back to jamaica. frederik felton junior. reporter: in june, when fred walks across the stage to accept his high school ploem diploma, isn t there. but his mother and christie are. how did you turn out the way you turned out. a brother a drug dealer, a father not in your life. i don t want to be poor like my mom is now, not a drug dealer like my brother. i look at what they do, i decide who i want to be. there are choices. you have a segment of the population that s being underdeveloped. there s talent there, potential there but the access, the opportunities may be lacking. so americans will pay for it. it s in our economic and work force best interests to nurture the talent we have in our backyard. reporter: pastor sorees and christie adams at first baptist see college potential in fred despite his c grades. if fred graduates with a bachelor s degree from his first choice school, he is guaranteed debt. it could be more than $50,000 worth. there s no guarantee of a job. why does it matter young black men go to college. high school diploma, $27,000, black males. college degree, $51,000. that s a huge gap. multiply that by 30 or 40 years over one s work life, close to a million dollar. education, pound for pound is their best option. for a better life. reporter: doug and mary jefferies achieved their better life. but they re afraid it s going to slip out of their grasp. one day, i broke down crying, saying pastor i ain t doing so well today. the sufferings of this present time reporter: carl fields is a devout christian but being tested by the toughest economy in years. reporter: has your faith diminished at all? think uh-oh. hallelujah. thank you, lord god, i know lord god, to this day work, work all week long punching that clock from dusk till dawn countin the days till friday night that s when all the conditions are right for a good time [ male announcer ] advanced technology that helps provide cleaner air, cleaner water, and helps make all of us more energy efficient is something the whole world can get in step with. [ static ] i need a good time [ male announcer ] ecomagination from ge. it s technology that makes the world work. nah. we have something else. but if you re hurt and miss work does it pay cash like aflac does? nah. or let you spend it in any way you want like for gas and groceries? nah. or help with everyday bills like aflac does? nah nah nah. [ male announcer ] there s aflac and there s everything else. visit aflac.com for an agent or quote. aflac! when it comes to investing, no one person has all the answers. so td ameritrade doesn t give me just one person. questions about retirement? i talk to their retirement account specialists. bonds? grab the phone. fixed-income specialist. td ameritrade knows investors sometimes need real, live help. not just one broker. a whole team there to help. to help me decide what s right for me. people with answers at td ameritrade. get up to $500 when you open an account. reporter: doug and mary jefferies are fighting to keep the home they built from scratch eight years ago. this is the american dream. we work very hard. at the end of the day, you go home, you want something nice to go to. reporter: the person leading them through the battle is a foreclosure counselor who works through the church s community development corporation. do i have the jeffries in the room. reporter: today, she s on the phone with the jeffrey s bank pushing for a decision on the request to lower the monthly mortgage payments, about $4,000 a month. we have to wait a couple days for the appraisal to come in and then i will actually submit the file. what is your feeling? i really can t say. we have to wait and see. reporter: 1 in 10 black families are losing their homes, most because of subprime loans. that s not the case with the jeffries. they refinanced twice and now they re under water. gone are the parties. the vacations. and the gifts. it s beautiful! reporter: why help doug and mary jefferies? super nice people but in a way, they make enough money, they could just move to another place. you can t assume a person s middle income and has less problems is impacted by those with less problems than a person lower income and has problems. reporter: how come we re seeing people in the middle class african-american now sliding back. you can be middle class by income but not wealth. you re laid off. you have a little wealth, you can maybe get by a year or two. reporter: middle class by income lose your job, a mortgage to pay, a month s worth of savings, you re in trouble. that s the difference. reporter: our report says three out of four black middle class families are middle class because of income only and at risk of falling out of the middle class. people forget some people were born on third base. other people have to start off at home and they have to hit a home run. reporter: many african-americans start at home base because of institutional barriers that historically kept them from owning homes. for example homesteading created wealth for millions of american families. they came west, settled in land. that was the indian s land. settled on that land and for settling that land they got that property and that property formed the basis of wealth passed down from generation to generation. african-americans were locked out of that wealth building opportunity. reporter: there were also programs like the g.i. bill and federal housing authority created to benefit all americans but as federal programs implemented by federal officials often discriminatory laws and thousands of african-americans couldn t gain access to housing, schools or money. the most important example was the federal housing authority. african americans either did not get loans from fha or did, they were consigned to inner city neighborhoods. you fast forward 30 years and think of the white family that went to purchase a home in a suburban tract, had no money down, had an fha loan, that cost less for mortgage, taxes and utilities than a comparable apartment in the inner city, they got that home. 30 years later, they might have $250,000 in equity because that home has increased in value. i don t want you to be that church. reporter: the pastor wants to help his congregation and black america conquer this wealth gap. this is our administrative offices. reporter: the reason he created first baptist community development corporation. this was given? all this was given. reporter: file ab nets given? all of it. reporter: one of hundreds run around the country. it has a focus on housing, helping to save people s homes from foreclosure and rebuilding a community near the church. doug jefferies is a cdc board member, also a church trustee who counts the weekly offerings. he never dreamed he d have to ask for the pastor s help with his own debt. one day, i just broke down. we were at a funeral at the church and sorees in his style pulls up, how you doing? i said, pastor j i ain t doing so well today. what s going on? i had to tell him what the deal was. reporter: was it embarrassing? yeah. quite. quite. reporter: how hard is it going to be if you have to give this up? well, you know what, soledad, it could be worse. it s not going to be so bad. it really isn t. i m all right. reporter: really? but i don t think i ll have to give it up. reporter: okay. as fred tries to figure out his college finances he hits an unexpected bump. after careful consideration of your application to king university reporter: carl fields job search is getting desperate. not one of those are in my career discipline. it doesn t really matter. i ve been out of the picky mode for quite some time. wrench? wrench. basic. preferred. at meineke i have options on oil changes. and now i get free roadside assistance with preferred or supreme. my money. my choice. my meineke. i m on don lemon with your top stories. in new york city, a suspect in a terrifying rampage was arraigned sunday night. maksim gelman went on a stabbing spree that lasted 28 hours. accused of killing three people with a knife and slashing two others and police finally caught up hit imon a subway car. and egypt s military wasting little time taking charge, the parliament suspended. they say they will return leadership within six months or until elections can be held. there are growing signs of life returning to normal. sunday, a wave of protests across the country against berlusconi. turning out in cities. berlusconi dogged with sex scandals and saying they re tired of the way he treats women and society. i m don lemon. keeping you informed. cnn. the most trusted name in news. as soon as i opened the door, i knew something was amiss. i saw a strange face sitting in the room. ra lady proceeded to tell me the company was undergoing further reorganization and my job had been eliminated. that was a year and half ago. after 25 years working his way up the ladder to vice president at a large insurance brokerage firm, carl fields was let go. it was four days before his 58th birthday. i must tell you, there were a number of grown people who, when i told them what had happened to me, literally stood there crying. i said to every one of them, don t cry for me, rejoice for what god is about to do. that s what keeps me going. hallelujah, thank you, lord. reporter: keeps him going still. even now in the missed of the storm amen. my day starts with prayer and meditation. very seldom do i miss that. now, i can face today, lord. amen. ah boy. reporter: has your faith diminished at all? never. i have never questioned him. the most difficult thing is watching my wife get up every morning and go to work and i m still in the bed. there is something horribly wrong with the fact that she gets up to go to provide for this family and i m not able to do that. you feel less than a man because i m not doing what a man should do. i try to build him up as much as i can. i do everything and anything i can do to makes him know he is the head of this house and he is my man. reporter: they ve been married for seven years. what s the stress on the relationship? not being able to pay all the bills exactly like we d like to. reporter: their regular monthly expenses are roughly $6,000. with his unemployment benefits and his salary as administrative assistant, they re about $2,000 short each month. it s hard. this is in your face. reporter: what do you pay and what do you not pay? the first thing is our tithes. reporter: you pay the tithes first. yes. always. reporter: don t you think the church would understand if you ve say, listen. it s not the church. god gives us 100% and we give back 10. we teach people to tithe 10%, invest 10% and save 10%. in effect, we re living below our means. reporter: everyday, carl goes to the library to search for a job. it s quiet. i m not interrupted, generally speaking. it s a full day. reporter: he fills out applications and tries to camouflage his age. some of these online applications, you cannot complete any application without indicating your date of birth. it gives the employer an opportunity to weed you out. 59 years of age, what do they realistically think in terms of my longevity. reporter: he also masks his experience. i m take ugh oing out of my my title as vice president. the reasons i ve done that, once they see that, they will immediately say overqualified. reporter: today, he applies for three jobs. i will print these out. i save those. they bam paecome part of my job application pile. reporter: manager. commercial lines account manager. how many would you guess this was? i know i ve put in over 300 job applications. reporter: hundreds of applications. good morning. how are you? thank you very much. reporter: hours of networking, nearly a dozen job fairs. what are you looking for today? the best job you have. reporter: and just three telephone interviews. unemployments for blacks is nearly double that of blacks, even among college graduates. the college educated black population is still predominantly in government jobs, which you ve seen a lot of cutbacks, predominantly in the retail sector, and they re in participates of the corporate sector that are the first to go. they re not the dynamic and growing parts of the economy. reporter: do you think you re going to get a job? i know i will get a job. i know. reporter: how do you know that? i feel i will get a job. i feel it in my bone and my spirit i will get a job. hello. how are you? good. you guys got hit hard. reporter: when the real estate and luxury car market plummeted, their commission based incomes went with it. mary hasn t closed a deal this year. now their home is on the brink of foreclosure. the church arranged for them to get help from an attorney. today, we will work on making peace opposed to making war with the bank. reporter: mark will try to save their home. according to the lender, you re roughly 26 payments in arrears. that s a serious amount. a serious delinquency. two years? a couple years now. reporter: two years, two months of non-payment, more than $100,000. they have money saved in doug s 401(k) but reluctant to withdraw it. reporter: you re waiting to see what the bank says before you make a move with your money. because if you give it to them and they kick you out, what s the point? reporter: is that the right move now? saying we should be in a home $400,000. the pragmatic thing to do. emotionally, we re attached. i have a pretty yard. reporter: you do. and pretty house. the pool would have probably been back there, deck, pool, and tennis court. you don t know what the next person is doing. i think there s some psychology in the african-american community having felt less than and wanting to feel as good as. racism does not cause you to by $500 shoes on a $22,000 salary. it s a value system. it s perspective on life, and we ve got to celebrate the breakup of that mentality. reporter: is that an american problem or an african-american problem? it s an american problem but it is most devastating in african-american communities. reporter: doug and mary s daughter, mya, is a varsity tennis player, who plays hard and shops hard. what are your splurges? clothes. reporter: you have a lot of clothes? you should see my room. tons of clothes i don t need. reporter: her half-brother, eddie pays for her phone and credit card bills. reporter: what s your credit card bill? high. reporter: i can tell from that face it s a little bit high? 400ish around there. reporter: a month? sometimes, yes. reporter: have your parents told you about some of the financial problems they re having? no. i don t really want to know. reporter: you don t want to know. i don t want to ask. reporter: really? why not? i don t think it s good to focus on negativity. i want to stay positive and keep moving. reporter: mya s future could be expensive. i would like to attend georgetown. princeton, columbia, yale, harvard as well. reporter: can your parents pay for you to go to college? it would be hard. it would really be hard for them. but i think they could pay for it. we are very hopeful that there ll be some scholarship money available and whatever we can raise we will raise. we ll find a way. you know, by grace through faith, we ll find a way. she has to go to the school she wants to go to. it just has to happen. that s a copy for you too keep. it s going to be a tough transition for them. even forever they do get approved the reality of them being able to maintain it are difficult. they will have to not make frivolous purchases. reporter: they have downsized to one car. some mediations just don t go well. reporter: as they leave the meeting, the couple is hopefully,the attorney is cautious. it looks 50-50. thank you. all righty. he was very nice. very nice. even though he said 50-50, he said it in an upbeat manner. sometimes the doctor can tell you it s 50-50, right? and you re fine. optimism has to be connected to some action. hour theme here is faith in action. if there s no action, your faith is dead. the bible says faith without works is dead. so i am i m against optimism if it s not rooted in reality. i will pray for you. reporter: as the jeffries wait on an answer from their lender fred travels cross-country. got your game face on? reporter: on a mission to raise money for college. and the gold goes to questions about retirement? i talk to their retirement account specialists. bonds? grab the phone. fixed-income specialist. td ameritrade knows investors sometimes need real, live help. not just one broker. a whole team there to help. to help me decide what s right for me. people with answers at td ameritrade. get up to $500 when you open an account. nah. we have something else. but if you re hurt and miss work does it pay cash like aflac does? nah. or let you spend it in any way you want like for gas and groceries? nah. or help with everyday bills like aflac does? nah nah nah. [ male announcer ] there s aflac and there s everything else. visit aflac.com for an agent or quote. aflac! [ boy humming ] [ humming ] [ humming ] [ female announcer ] the simple joy of a happy meal. [ boy ] ba da ba ba ba ooh, ahe announcer ] the ila, la, la a happy meal. ooh, ah la, la, la ooh, ah la, la, la ooh, ah la, la, la [ dance beat ] [ male announcer ] join theladders.com. the $100k+ job search specialists. that give you the tools and guidance you need to be irresistible. it s personal. i have diabetes. so i m proud to manufacture the accu-chek aviva meters and test strips here in the usa. and now we put a prescription discount card in every box so you ll pay no more than $15 on test strips, which is a true american value for people with diabetes like me. [ male announcer ] accu-chek aviva. born in the usa. my name is freddie george junior. reporter: fred wants to go to college and likely mean taking out tens of thousands of dollars in loans. so christie ha entered fred in an acting competition. good morning. i will performing a monologue. reporter: that s the piece he uses for all important auditio auditions. none of y all will listen to what i got to say. none of y all will listen? you don t care as much as you hate me or you despise me. i will go away. i am you! the real you! unless you called me here, i m going to be here. reporter: the wait is short. winners in these regional rounds are announced the next day. now, for the south, the bronze medal goes to monique robinson. the silver medal goes to donte walker. and the gold, from new brunswick, fred phillips! take it all the way. reporter: all the way means the finals at the naacp competition in kansas city. you re doing it! reporter: $2,000 is at stake. but he s prepared and ready. i actually wanted to experience the character so some days i didn t eat, just to feel hunger, some days i can t sleep. some days i didn t shower so i could feel the nastiness. today, i wasn t going to brush my teeth but then i was like, no, i will take that back. listen, we ve always been here, we always going to be here. i m honored to declare this year s award years. award awardees. reporter: in the end, despite a great performance, fred doesn t place in the top three and doesn t win any money. i don t feel bummedality all. this is my first national co competiti competition. and i will make sure i become the best in this nation. reporter: for fred, becoming the best means college. after this competition, the grand sum he has for school is zero. and acceptance means debt. i would like to offer you admission to king university as a member of the upcoming freshman class. reporter: he should be thrilled. there s also this letter. after careful consideration of your application to kean university, it has been determined that at this time, we are unable to offer you admission to our fresh march class. reporter: two completely contradictory decisions. i m confused. reporter: confusion that s cleared up a few days later by valerie winslow, the director of admissions. i called you over the weekend to tell you, you have been accepted to kean university. what do you think of that? i m very happy. we expect you to be successful as a college student. i just want to say on behalf of kean university, congratulations. thank you. he worked hard, brought up the grade point average. we heard from his teacher and guidance counselor, because of the work he did, he s accepted to kean university. reporter: the college also heard from someone else. did you pull strings to get fred into college? pull strings? reporter: or whatever phrase you care to use, snap your fingers, pick up the phone? i picked up the phone to make sure nothing got lost in the sauce and fred didn t fall between the cracks. reporter: what s that mean, lost in the sauce? fred was not your classic college applicant. and he was not heavily sought after in colleges. fred had academic challenges, financial challenges. i didn t want to trust his high school counselors to be his primary advocates, and so when i heard that fred was having some difficulty with the college of his choice, i thought it probably would help if i let the president know that fred is with me. reporter: doug and mary jefferies dwindling income can t cover their expenses. they may be out of time. what will happen? what are the options? there aren t any options. reporter: carl fields was looking for a job on his own? i found out carl was looking for a job through someone else. reporter: now that pastor sorees knows, what can he do? my doctor gave me a prescription for chantix, a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] chantix is a non-nicotine pill proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these symptoms or behaviors, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. if you develop serious allergic or skin reactions, stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some of these can be life-threatening. don t take chantix if you ve had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. dosing may be different if you have kidney problems. until you know how chantix affects you, use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. my benjamin, he helped me with the countdown. ben, how many days has it been? 5 days, mom. 10 days, mom. i think after 30 days he got tired of counting. [ male announcer ] it s a new year. so, ask your doctor about chantix. and find out how you could save money on your prescription go to chantix.com to learn more and get terms and conditions. for doug and mary jefferies, it all comes down to today, their day in court. it s mediation day. reporter: what s going to happen today? what are the options? there airport any options. they re either going to reduce the mortgage or they re going to foreclosure. i m ready. i couldn t sleep. you go ahead. i am worried, a little bit. but i still think that god has our back. thanks a bunch. i just really believe that. reporter: a full three hours after the talks begin god is good. yes, he is, all the time. god is good. yep. reporter: so, how did it go? we didn t get a workout today. reporter: a workout is a new lower mortgage rate. a workout means any bank is going to sell the jeffrey eshome. their home is scheduled to be sold by the sheriff early this year. there have been many instances when helping the family has meant counseling the family to leave the house. and this is one of those instances. their economic situation does not qualify them to live in that house. my mission is to help them become psychologically, emotionally spiritually prepared to start over. but they have to agree to do it. they have to know that they re starting at ground zero. they re not building on something that s pre-existing but they have to approach it as starting from scratch. if they do that, they ll be very successful. my focus over time. reporter: part of carl fields strategy includes job fairs, lots of them. my name is carl fields. good morning. how are you? delighted to meet you. reporter: the next lead doesn t come from another job fair, it comes from church. charles brown is a human resources director and church member. i have quite a lot of people i want you to meet this morning. reporter: the meeting isn t accidental, pastor sorees is intervening again. the pastor called me and said i need you to be on a phone call. thank you for agreeing to be here. rich: reporter: he has people who can help him get a job. thank you for taking the time to care about me. i greatly appreciate that, to say the least. i have been, for any last 25 years, a commercial insurance broker. we do have his resume here. i think you gave me an updated one. today is just an introduction. the most unbelievable experience in my 18 months happened today. do you know what it s been like for 18 months, to knock on so many doors, trying to get an opportunity to meet people within and to talk about you, other than just sending a piece of paper in a black hole, it s the most incredible experience, amen. amen. carl will get a job, i believe that we will do for carl what we ve done for hundreds of others, and that is make sure that we exercise all our options to leverage our resources to help him find work. the short end is i ll make some calls. reporter: fred is now in college and in debt. classes have just started. his total debt for his freshman year is now more than $16,000. if i m not there, speak with my administrative assistant. okay. pastor sorees, i have to give him a big thank you, not just only him but the whole first baptist church. they have been, you know, the biggest greatest blessing i ve ever had in my life. you re continuing to prepare, continuing to get good grades so you can finish well. god gave fred people in his life who would invest in him. god gave fred the motivation that he needs to pursue all of his dreams. if fred stays on the track he s on, he ll defy the odds. god gave fred a good package. reporter: pastor sorees and first baptist are doing what bl