The Johnson County (Indiana) Adult Community Corrections Work Release facility has created an employment readiness program that uses Jails to Jobs: Seven Steps to Becoming Employed and its companion slide deck to help participants develop the skills they need to find and keep employment.
The program was developed by Jonathan Kroenke, a University of Indiana master of social work student intern, under the supervision of Ben Newell, program therapist for Johnson County Court Services. Newell is a licensed clinical social worker, who describes himself as “a mental health translator for the court.” He’s available to anyone in community corrections who would like to see a therapist and makes sure they get a chance to see one.
The work release facility houses about 95 residents and has been at max capacity for awhile. Some participants come from the Johnson County Jail, and others are transferred from various Indiana state prisons. The residents are mostly men, but the facility also houses women. People living there are expected to be employed, but they may also be looking for work or receiving physical or mental health treatment.
Meeting both practical and emotional needs
The employment readiness program was Newell’s idea. “I’m a mental health provider, and I wanted to start a class that would help people who are really struggling with employment. I did that because I felt that people who are chronically struggling with employment have other issues as well. So I had an intern who helped develop the structure,” he says.
The program is designed to teach practical job search skills while also helping participants develop the resilience needed to cope with the emotional challenges of repeated rejection and the barriers associated with having a legal history. Participants learn how to search for employment, prepare for interviews, navigate conversations about their legal history and build the confidence needed to persevere in today’s job market.
The class, which was launched earlier this year, meets three times per week for one hour between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Anyone can participate, and the early hour allows people who are working to attend. Some attendees already have jobs but are looking for better ones. If they’re not working, they can gain skills by doing volunteer work for the county, which includes working at a local food pantry or at the county fairgrounds, where they clean horse stalls and other things, and paint buildings. Most people who have jobs work in warehouses, factories or fast-food outlets.
Finding the right resources
Newell looked around for resources that provided practical advice and found our book.
“Once we got this going, we realized that they need practical skills and how to handle being rejected over and over again,” he says.
After downloading the Jails to Jobs: Seven Steps to Becoming Employed‘s free companion slide deck from our website, Newell decided to order 92 copies of the book when he saw how it could support the program. A grant from Drug Free Johnson County covered the purchase.
“It just seemed very practical. Other than the fact that there are a lot of resources specific to California, there are a lot of tips and tricks that are very specific to people coming out of prison,” Newell says. (We are currently updating the book to expand its national resources and provide an even more comprehensive guide for individuals and organizations supporting reentry.)
A program that continues to evolve
Although the program began with a set curriculum, it has recently become more free form. Since everyone in the class has different needs, it has evolved into a more flexible format that reflects the varying needs of participants.
“Everybody is checking in and thinking about the next steps for the week. They are asked about their broader goals and any steps they can take. There’s often a theme. This morning a representative from a local bank came in to tell them how to improve their credit scores,” Newell says.
One of the most important topics the class covers is handling interviews. Newell provides interview questions, and they talk as a group about how they will answer them. They also talk about how they are going to deal with their history.
“If there are several people who have interviews coming up, I’ll pull out my computer and pull up the slides (from the companion slide deck to the Jails to Jobs book) on how to do an interview. And recently it was really helpful, when we were talking about cleaning up your online image. It never occurred to many in the group that you had to do that,” Newell says.
“We pull in a variety of things to answer to as many needs as possible,” he adds.
Recognizing employment readiness program as an intervention
The program has changed from what he originally envisioned.
“What we’re doing now is capturing it as an intervention. I document everyone who comes in and log them in as an employment intervention. Within corrections there’s a movement that believes that people with a high risk need a lot of intervention. Interventions can be anything from attending an anger management class to interacting with officials or attending a class like this. Down the road we can look at how much intervention this program is providing,” Newell says.
Advice for other potential programs
Newell encourages others who are thinking about creating similar programs to just do it.
“My advice is to get started sooner rather than later. Know that the need in your specific environment might be different than you realize. So allow your community to teach you what the needs are,” he says.
Looking back, he would do things a bit differently if he had to do it all over again.
“I would have started much sooner than I had if I knew what I know now. I would grow a program much quicker and have more opportunities for other people to attend. If someone’s working a night shift and wants to improve their resume they’re not going to make it into the class,” he says.
“In an environment like a work release facility, these people are getting rejected over and over. It’s emotionally taxing on people. They need a lot of skills to improve the likelihood that they will get a job. I’ve learned that this kind of program has to figure out two things at once – a tremendous skill need and a tremendous emotional need.”
Looking ahead, Newell hopes to build more collaboration, incorporating more community resources into the program. These might be a representative from a staffing agency and hiring managers from local businesses, for example.
