LITTLE ROCK — The Little Rock Board of Directors heard a presentation Tuesday on new city Prevention, Intervention and Treatment programs that deal with re-entry after prison, skills training and job placement.
The board requested an update on the programs after a discussion during the past two weeks about a proposed ordinance to give bid preferences to companies that agree to hire a percentage of disconnected adults and youth. Disconnected individuals include those between the ages of 16 and 24 who don’t have a significant work history because of a criminal history or lack of education or training.
Ward 2 Director Ken Richardson, who proposed the ordinance, said last week that he hopes the measure, if passed, could work in coordination with other city efforts to address issues of people reentering the work force and job training.
Tuesday’s presentation by the city’s Department of Community Programs centered on the city’s efforts to address re-entry needs and job placement. The city increased its Prevention, Intervention and Treatment funds from $3 million to $6 million through the citywide sales tax increase passed in 2011.
Richardson specifically mentioned the city’s new skills center and a re-entry coordinator position created when advocating for his ordinance, but neither was mentioned in Tuesday night.
Dorothy Nayles, director of Community Programs, said the department has started several pilot programs through partnerships with community organizations to address the disconnected population.
She highlighted the city’s sidewalk program through the Department of Public Works, which hired 10 ex-felons in July. The program provides individuals with training in how to lay concrete and how to operate some heavy machinery, along with such “soft skills” as being punctual and getting along with others, she said.
Nayles also mentioned other pilot programs with the Center for Women in Transition, Lewis Burnett Employment Finders and Goodwill Services. Nayles said each program is designed to address a specific population, from nonviolent offenders who are within six months of release from prison who need pre-release services to women who need housing assistance during their transition from prison.
The services the programs provide vary greatly, including transportation help, housing help, skills training, job placement and anger management.
“They need housing, good phone numbers to pick up messages ... some of them don’t have transportation,” Nayles said. “Support services have to be worked out, in order to move toward employment.”
Nayles said several of the programs also deal with teenagers who are close to aging out of the foster care system and students who have been held back or don’t have the credit hours to graduate but who are transitioning into adulthood.
Several of the directors asked if private partners have agreed to place people in jobs, whether contracts for the pilot programs were bid out and if the department had held any job fairs.
Nayles said the department has had discussions with the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce and has received a commitment from Verizon to hire several employees from the disconnected population. Several of the pilot programs are not at the point of holding a job fair because many of the participants are still gaining skills and dealing with external factors, she said.
Richardson said he would like to see the board work with the juvenile justice system, the Little Rock School District and others to make policies to foster the efforts.
“Those that have been successful on a large scale have been tied to specific policies. So how do we initiate, develop and foster policies that develop what we have in place?” he asked. “We could have job fairs day in and day out, but it has to be done at the policy level. We let out jobs and award contracts. We have the influence of over half a billion dollars in the next 10 years.”
Nayles said the department has asked many of those entities, including non-profit organizations, service organizations and private sector businesses to attend a Nov. 1 forum to discuss policies and other areas of cooperation.
To date, Nayles said 216 people are working with the Lewis Burnett Employment Finders company, 86 prisoners in pre-release are working with an advocacy group that is also helping 57 felons who were recently released, and Goodwill is helping 46 residents, 12 of whom have enrolled in classes at Pulaski Technical College.
Arkansas, Pages 17 on 10/24/2012