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San Diego Nonprofit Helps Ex-Offenders Get Jobs

Graduates of the San Diego nonprofit Second Chance are seen in this undated photo.
Rebecca Antuña, RoseRed Creative
Graduates of the San Diego nonprofit Second Chance are seen in this undated photo.

San Diego Nonprofit Helps Ex-Offenders Get Jobs
San Diego Nonprofit Helps Ex-Offenders Get Jobs GUESTS:Robert Coleman, president and CEO, Second ChanceTony Torres, participant, Second Chance

The unemployment rate for San Diego County this year is about 4.7% that's a big drop from the double-digit unemployment figures of just a few years ago but imagine a segment of society were the estimated unemployment rate is not for or even 10% at around 40 to 50%. That's the hurdle faced by many people released from prison in trying to reenter the work horse. Sandy go second chance program is helping its students because of. It is holding its 10th annual job a resource fair tomorrow and joining me now is Robert Coleman he is president and chief executive officer of second chance San Diego. Rubber butt into the program or co- Good morning worrying good morning. In 20 [ Indiscernible ] is a student currently enrolled in the second chance program he is graduating this Friday, congratulations, 20. Intima and appreciate. Keeper being here. Was in the backroom for people who are world is second chance? Many of the people that come to second chance have had challenging backgrounds. Often the addiction is issued for them homeless is it issue for them and as a result of those also incarceration is also an issue to and so each one of those is a pretty significant hurdle is the think about their future and they are not prepared for job interviews. They're not prepared for the preparation for interviews. And ultimately sometimes there's a question that says will continue explain this gap in your resume human and for many of the graduates they use these excuses for many years as to why they can't achieve certain things. And they have lost hope. And what we do a second chances give them hope back again. We help them with their attitude and we help them answer some of those typical questions that may or may not come at the interview stage, but gives them that ability to succeed inability to get back into employment again. Will for instance Robert when an employer says yes, I see that there is an 18 month, to your In your employment record, what you students a? Sometime this to your sometimes it could be 30 years for what they say is you know what I made some mistakes and that was me then let me to you about me today and let me tell you about my hopes and dreams for tomorrow. And what we often find from our employers we talked to them afterwards is fake knowledge that they say thank you because they know how hard it was for the individual to own up to what happen yesterday. And as people and his employers, they appreciate that honesty and often works to their advantage in their favor to be honest like that and employers give them a second chance. .Tony, when did you hear about the second chance program? Will want to hear about the second chance program I've actually was in a [ Indiscernible ] home and I had a friend that was coming to the program and [ Indiscernible ] NT inspired me about it. It was about all say March It was about all say March 18 when I first entered the program. It was good. It is good. I interviewed and then from there on Sunday to build myself to get to know myself again and again at hope that wishing to gain again. That you are in a treatment program for substance abuse? Yes. What did they help you learn at second chance of getting a job? What they help me learn was to get a job it is a future for yourself and the cassette, they help me build my hopes up again because I was really hopeless and I just lost completely everything. I didn't want to do anything I just wanted to stay out using drugs and just not caring, going to jail and a just and care and said second chance help me build that hopelessness that ahead and setting up today to fight for the future for my happiness. Before second chance before you thought about the future, getting out and restarting your life, to to think that you have the skills or the ability to go in and get some kind of a job? You know, I had skills. Hits expense of working like performance on drugs and I just lost it all low-cholesterol intellect citizens I came back to second chance to help me regain that conscious again. What you wanted to have? I want to work in the construction field. Okay. All right, a graduate of pretty connect If I do. Robber, currently 75% conference get hired within six months of leaving the program. What you'd attribute the success to?'s connect is the motivation when they graduate from second chance there was a real air of I can achieve and I can do this. We also have -- help build resiliency because we know there's going to be number of nose on that journey and had to get over that no get right back on be focused on their job search and their employment or go we support them for two years further graduated so we are always there to help them. We work with a lot of employers. And those employers send this job leads that we send out to our graduates so there's a real teamwork in terms of how we get them back into work. And success rests not only the fact they get jobs within the first 36 months but are they still in employment 12 months later? That really is the real thing for us. We spoke to one employer who is hired graduates from second chance Academy here's rented Peterson of Peterson reporting a court reporting from. May be there is perhaps a necessary stigma because of the vocabulary that people use in terms and if you need no ex-cons ex-felons would really what I found there are people who have made mistakes, paid for their mistakes and today -- they just can't wait to get back to work. That there was some employers that we know are part of this program who didn't want to speak to us. And so there is a stigma that your group is fighting and the people who come out of the group is still fight is separate? It is and some employers is not that they don't want to help be a part that they're just sure how to start and so we find what I find when I talked to employers is to get them just to employ one person. And see how that goes and typically what happens is once they've done it once and there HR department maybe has got over the anxieties they may have of employing someone who may have had a background of poor choices, then what we find is that the more more they will come to us with other vacancies. Will in this job here tomorrow just a few of the employers UCC indigo, city of San Diego, Sea world, a number of employers are going to be there. It is tomorrow at the Jacob Center for neighborhood innovation it runs from 10 AM to 2 PM it's open to the community. To thank you guys for speaking to me Robert Coleman of second chance and Tony Torres again good luck and congratulations. Thank you a lot I appreciate it.

The unemployment rate for San Diego County this year has held steady at about 4.7 percent, a big drop from the double digit unemployment figures of just a few years ago. But for people released from jail or prison who are trying to re-enter the workforce, the estimated unemployment rate is 40 percent to 50 percent.

San Diego's Second Chance program is helping some beat those odds.

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Through a four-week program, the organization teaches ex-offenders how to land a job, including dressing for an interview. The nonprofit is holding its 10th annual job and resource fair on Tuesday.

Tony Torres learned about the program through a friend at a substance abuse treatment facility.

“I was really hopeless,” he told KPBS Midday Edition on Monday. “I just lost completely everything.”

Torres will graduate from the program on Friday, and he hopes to find work in the construction field.

He has reasons to be optimistic. About 75 percent of Second Chance participants get hired within six months.

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Robert Coleman, the program’s president and CEO, said that Second Chance works to ensure that participants remain employed 12 months later. Besides teamwork, he credits the students’ motivation for the program’s success rate.

“When they graduate from Second Chance, there is a real air of I can achieve and I can do this,” Coleman said.

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