National News
Grant to help residents with criminal records gain job skills
March 18, 2015 posted by Steve Brownstein
The city will receive a grant of nearly $120,000 to create a program meant to help unemployed residents who have trouble getting jobs because of criminal records to gain the kind of skills that might someday let them create their own businesses.
Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson was with officials of the Urban League of Northwest Indiana and the Gary Economic Development Corp. on Thursday at City Hall to receive the grant for creation of a Gary 4 Jobs program.
Under the program, 25 local residents will participate in classes for the next eight weeks, while also doing work for A Better Cut, a Gary-based landscaping company. They will be used on assorted beautification projects meant to improve Gary's physical appearance, the mayor said.
During their time in the program, the residents will receive stipends of $12 per hour for their work.
Corporation Executive Director Bo Kemp said the residents will have some income during the period while participating in classes meant to get them to focus on how they could someday go about developing their own businesses.
Although JOBS Fund treasurer Angela Woolfolk said participants also will gain from having the work experience. "We hope this will be successful in helping these people be able to obtain jobs" in the future, she said.
The program – modeled after similar programs that Urban League chapters have created with Cook and Will county governments in Illinois – is meant to give one-time criminal offenders a second chance to redeem their lives, although Kemp said a prior record is not required to be considered for the program.
People wishing to participate in the program, however, will be required to submit to a drug screening. Urban League President Vanessa Allen said the first round of participants were chosen from among nearly 80 applicants based largely on their attitude.
"The people who showed up early and acted like they wanted a job, they were the ones chosen," she said.
Kemp said the fact that the participants – recommended by entities such as the Gary Housing Authority, the city court system and the New Life Ministry – have criminal records should not mean they don't have skills that could be of use in society.
"These people have drive and initiative, it's just that most of them did not put it to use in the most positive way," Kemp said, while adding that among the things the participants will be taught is that they will have a better chance of having gainful employment if they are able to work for themselves, rather than having to rely on a company hiring them.
Freeman-Wilson said the city will benefit from such an attitude if it winds up creating more local residents who are working and contributing to the local business climate.
"I think it is very thoughtful if it makes them realize they won't have to worry about filling out an (job) application if they have their own business," she said.
