LITTLE ROCK — Finding a job in a recovering economy can be hard even when you have the right experience, education or job skills. Finding a job when you don’t have that education or when you have a criminal record can be even harder.
Little Rock plans to help people in the latter groups with a new hiring program, targeting those who have criminal histories, low levels of education and are historically underemployed. The pilot program is to start July 1 with 10 new employees who will learn to lay concrete, fix sidewalks, and make cuts in curbs and driveways - projects on a to-do list throughout the city.
That’s not all that the new hires will learn, city officials said.
City Manager Bruce Moore, who has been working to put the program together, said the city is making every effort to help the new hires succeed through basic job-skill training and working with mentors to help them with such things as showing up on time, getting along with co-workers, budgeting their time and becoming responsible employees.
The program will be funded out of two pots of money bolstered by a 1 percentage-point citywide sales-tax increase that started in January. The materials and project costs for the sidewalks will come from$400,000 in public works funding, and the personnel costs will come from the Community Programs Department.
“The mayor and Board of Directors have continued to push me on how we can get people who have had some issues in the criminal-justice system more engaged with things we do. We didn’t really have the resources before the sales tax, and I’m excited to get started,” Moore said.
“The goal is twofold: To get these individuals back into gainful employment and to help them transition into the private sector ... working for companies.”
Public Works Director Steve Beck said he was handpicking employees who have experience in the department and who he believes will work well with young people and can serve as mentors.
“This is a problem nationwide, and we want to be part of the solution,” he said. “Without programs like this, it becomes a hopeless cycle. This has to succeed, and we’re going to do everything in our power to make it succeed. We’re setting the participants up for success with skills beyond labor skills.”
The Community Programs Department is responsible for managing the city’s now $6 million in Prevention, Intervention and Treatment programs. The department largely contracts with private nonprofits that run such things as gang-intervention efforts, reentry programs for felons and mentoring for at-risk teens.
The Community Programs portion of the pilot funding was delayed for several months because of persistent questions from the Board of Directors about whether the already-funded programs were achieving the best results for the city’s money. The board decided last month to move forward with funding the department’s new programs, including the sidewalk initiative and other efforts aimed at helping teenagers become responsible adults.
Moore said a conversation with an employee earlier this month brought home how important the sidewalk initiative could be.
“I was walking between meetings and one of my employees introduced me to his son. He said, ‘My son just got out of prison. He has a family with young children. He’s really been trying to find work, but he just can’t get in the door anywhere.’”
Moore took the man’s application and spent some time talking to him about the sidewalk initiative, explaining that it requires a commitment to be responsible and labor outdoors during the summer.
“He said, ‘All I need is a chance,’” Moore said. “It really came full circle for me then. There are people who really want to work and have these barriers.”
Moore said the inaugural group will be small so that the city can learn how best to implement the program and make any changes necessary before expanding it.
Finding applicants won’t be a problem, he said. Moore asked the staff at the Community Programs Department, as well as neighborhood activists who work with young people, to come up with candidates. There are more than 80 applicants for future rounds of hiring, he said.
“I’ve already asked my department heads in parks and recreation, public works, fleet maintenance and other areas to identify entry-level positions where we might be able to eventually expand this program,” he said.
He also worked with the city’s Human Resources Department to make sure that the employment applications don’t all have to be turned in online so that people who don’t have access to computers won’t be left out of the hiring.
“We’re trying to knock down as many barriers to employment and job skills as we can,” he said.
Planning for other initiatives through the Prevention, Intervention and Treatment programs has started, he said, and several proposals should be taken before the Board of Directors in the next month.
Ward 2 Director Ken Richardson has been one of the proponents of releasing the pilot program funds as soon as possible.
“I’m happy we’re finally moving forward, but I’m saddened that it’s taken so long to get this off the ground,” he said. “I’m not sure how much the board gleaned from these continued questions of just one of our department’s funds or how much has changed in terms of how that department operates.
“What I do know is that those funds and programs are needed in the community, and the only part of this that makes me feel better is that the city manager has promised the unused funds from this budget year will roll over and be kept in community programs’ budget next year.”
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 06/17/2012