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Ex-Convicts Get Job Training

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2008

Updated: 01/07/2008 11:34 pm

TAMPA - When David Simon was released from prison in November, he got $100 and a bus ticket home to East Tampa.

He also got what he didn't bargain for: depression.

Few employers wanted an ex-convict on the payroll, and without a job, Simon couldn't afford an apartment or car. No matter how much he was ready to start a new life, no one was willing to give him a break.

"I wasn't prepared," said the 55-year-old former drug addict, who spent a decade incarcerated on burglary charges.

But a program unveiled Monday in the heart of Simon's old neighborhood hopes to change things for ex-offenders just like him.

The Carpenter's Bench offers a holistic approach to job training and home ownership designed to not only help people get jobs, but to help them keep those jobs, move on to better-paying ones and, eventually, own a home.

"It's the complete package," said Don Phoenix, director of the Southern Regional Office of NeighborWorks America, a national nonprofit organization that focuses on strengthening communities through housing and employment. "We're giving them skills to sustain a job, get into a home and build equity."

'We're Giving Them A Livable Wage'

With a $500,000 grant recently awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the program will train 100 workers during the next three years to work in construction. Already, 18 men, including Simon, are signed up.

During the first three weeks, participants receive a small stipend to help with living expenses, said Ernest Coney Jr., chief operating officer of the Corporation To Develop Communities of Tampa.

By the fourth week, they're earning a paycheck with on-the-job training, he said.

"We're taking people not employed or in poverty," Coney said, "and giving them a livable wage - over $10 an hour."

Although Tampa's housing slump has stalled the construction industry, Coney is confident this program will be a success.

"We understand housing," he said. "It has picked up in Hillsborough."

In addition, many of the participants will work for the agency, which has been involved in building multi-family housing in Tampa, Coney said. Organizers expect to build 15 single-family homes this year.

How To Answer Felony Question

The agency is one of three entities involved in the program and will provide employment training, including how to fill out an application and how to answer the inevitable question: Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

"I tried to lie about it once," Simon said, but the truth eventually caught up with him.

Now he holds his head high and tells potential employers, "Yes, I've been in jail, but I'm not that person anymore."

Hillsborough County leads the state in the number of ex-convicts released back into their community, said Robert Blount, president of Abe Brown Ministries.

"Statistics show these individuals are three times less likely to re-offend and return back to prison if they have gainful employment," he said. "But they need a place to live, transportation, a life coach and health care or they're probably not going to keep that job."

The Corporation To Develop Communities also will provide opportunities for first-time homebuyers. Able Body Training U will provide hands-on job training and placement. Abe Brown Ministries will offer participants housing and training space.

For information about the program, contact Toni Watts of the Corporation To Develop Communities at (813) 248-9738.

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

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