Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, October 5, 2010,
Item 10
>> are y'all here on number 10? It be 10 is it receive update on the offender workforce development program and website. Miss moran and company.
>> good morning, judge biscoe and commissioners.
>> morning.
>> my presentation is three fold. I will be doing some thank you's and some introductions and then we're going to go over the website and then a testimonial from one of my individuals that have come through the program.
>> okay. We've got two more chairs available there for those who would like to sit.
>> today we're here to proudly announce the official owd offender workforce development website for travis county criminal justice planning department. And i want to thank roger jeffreys and kimberly pierce for always supporting and encouraging me in administering this program. And i also would like to thank, a big thank you to susan veroff, se seal bogen and chris from its. They did an awesome job in making sure this website was user friendly for all. I would like to thank (indiscernible) for the psa and film clips for this site as well as bob moore and i want to thank steven broberg forly letting him help ug with this program to look good. There's one special person that is not here today that i will need to give thanks to. And that is miss whitney herms, who was a graduate student from st. Edward's who came and asked if she could volunteer for the offender workforce development program. And when she came she helped put all the pages together for this website. I also have with me here the owds specialists that have been trained at the master level. They're an amazing team and have been there when i needed them. They are representatives from adult probation, the texas department of criminal justice parole, federal probation, federal bureau of prisons, work source, project rio, the sheriff's office, city of austin, network for life, child incorporated,.
>> [speaking spanish] , travis county health and human services and veterans services, and goodwill. Did i forget any? Okay. Also if there are any offender employment specialists graduates in the audience, could you please stand? They're all back behind me. There are some back there. Okay. Thank you. We have trained over 300 individuals from faith-based communities, nonprofits, businesses, government, law enforcement, parole and probation. Also at this time i would like to thank -- take this opportunity to thank miss clara fleming with.
>> [speaking spanish] as they are the official host site for these trainings. And it has helped many of the offender workforce development participants get trained in culinary arts and they have found employment in the food service industry. And we have two representatives from that organization here.
>> welcome: and that's where the goodies came from?
>> that's where the goodies came from?
>> am i to share those with the rest of the court?
>> it's for all of you.
>> you're darn skippy.
>> [ laughter ]
>> as i stated in the agenda memo request that i sent to you, all the graduates combined have assisted over 16,000 individuals with resources needed to overcome barriers as well as helped over 1800 to find employment. In the supplement that i have here, which i will probably have my associate go and leave with y'all, it shows the demographics of the participants involved in the program. I apologize for what was not captured in the handouts, which is the age of the participants. But a majority of them range in their 30's. The age range runs from 18 to about 69 years of age. And as you can see, 21 percent are female that come to see me and 79 percent are male. You also have under highest education level 57% of them have their high school diploma or g.e.d. And 23% have less than high school -- less than high school. And we do have some college degrees, about five percent, associate degree is two, and some college, about 13 percent. And the race ethnicity of this population that we serve, 58% are african-american, 23% are hispanic, 16% are anglo, biracial is one percent and the other native americans and other races, two percent. So this is just a breakdown of the demographics that we have on hand. And what i want you to do also, last but not least, i want you to introduce two individuals that helped me with this program. Kylely woods is an intern from canton, new york. And mr. Isaiah pore teeio was an a.c.c. Intern who was hired in june of this year to assist me in the offender workforce development program. And i would like for isaiah and kiley if they would like to say a few words to the commissioners and judge biscoe.
>> you can take that mic if you would like. It will pop right off.
>> okay.
>> i've been noticing that everybody had a speech. I don't have one ready.
>> [ laughter ] at least written down. It's all in my head. It's an honor to meet y'all. It's an honor to work for travis county. I used to do -- i did four years of active duty in the military. From there i did probation at gardner-betts and i'm here and very happy to be here. It's good to meet you.
>> we're honored to have you.
>> you were an a.c.c. Intern for a semester?
>> yes. I did that internship with government class. I believe you're fully a wear of that. We have another one here doing the same thing with the internship in that class. And i don't know what mary saw, but she liked my performance, so she wanted to climb me on board. I'm happy to be here.
>> welcome.
>> it's nice to meet everyone and it's been great working with mary and isaiah for the owd program and helping people find employment and just being a part of something so big. So it's been great and i like texas.
>> [ laughter ]
>> anybody else while we're passing the mic around? Anybody standing? I see one or two county -- three county employees, don't i?
>> good morning. It's good to be here. I am a county employee. I work for travis county adult probation. The service rendered by this program started by the county commissioners' court has been very, very beneficial to us. One of the biggest challenges for our people is finding and keeping employment. And this program, the attitude, the helpfulness has been so great for them. They come back with high raves for that program. And we thank you and thank the program for what they do. Thank you.
>> the commissioners court, it is a pleasure to work with the owds team. I serve as a gateway for those individuals who are needing services and i can refer them to all of the people you see sitting here. Our goal at health and human services and veteran services is to help the yurved served in our -- underserve understand our community and that's what we're try trieg to do with the help of this team. Thank you.
>> i'm harvey franklin with the travis county humane society management department. And we have been by mary's side from the beginning of this program. We attend the travis state jail resource fairs every month. We also participate in the fairs at the sheriff's department and the sheriff's department promotes. And i can say that from the interest from phone calls and walk-in traffic that we get in the hr department, the community is well aware of your support of hiring ex-offenders and we're proud to be a part of that initiative.
>> hi. My name is rashaun greg and i'm with the city of austin's humane society department. I am an employment specialist with the city of austin. I just wanted to just thank you all for just getting the ball rolling and that the city was able to piggyback on with travis county to service more people and just to get the word out that we do support, you know, reintegration of ex-offenders. We have recently added a link to our website, employment website, to the offender workforce development website. So individuals that are looking for city employment can actually access you all's website from our site. So we just want to thank you all for just your commitment to helping ex-offenders come back into the community. Because it helps everyone.
>> what a wonderful collaboration. Thank you.
>> hi. I have my own microphone, thank you.
>> [ laughter ] i'm jan taylor from the federal bureau of prisons in bastrop. And it has been a wonderful partnership for me with mary and everybody else in travis county. Actually, i've known some of these guys since before we did the owds class. And the offender workforce program, they've been coming out to support the institution and helping our guys that are released into the austin-travis county area for over 20 years. So -- but what this has done, it has really helped to strengthen our partnership and i know that when we have guys who are releasing to travis county, i have programs. I now know of programs and i have people and services and faces that i can just say go here and these people will help you. So that's been really good. And now that the travis county site is up and running on our website, the bop under bastrop, we have our own re-entry page. And what i would like to do now that your site is open is to put it on our site so that other institutions who have people that are going to be coming back to austin, they will have this site and they will know where to go before they get here. And i would also like to say that our first guy from our institution that released five weeks ago, he has been participating in the ventana del sol program. We collaborated and we got him all together and he finishes the program this week on friday and then graduation is the end of october. I talked to claire and it's october 22nd. So that is when their next graduation is. So thank you so much for all you do and your support of this program. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> my name is sheryl selby and i'm the faith-based component of mary's team. Originally when we went to florida to be trained as offender workforce development specialists by the national institute of corrections, i was very humbled by the invitation because i'm actually an ex-offender. I was released from travis county jail in 1998, turned my life around, came in to the community and found the resources lacking. It's still a hard situation for women coming from prison and jail and trying to reunite with families, trying to learn their nurturing side again. This opportunity with the support of the commissioners court has made an enormous impact within the community that i'm sure where you sit, you're not really feeling the ripple effect. But i have seen it time and time again through the offender workforce development specialist training, through other ex-offenders who have been able to reclaim their lives through the offender employment training, the oes training that's given every quarter through mary's department. And i just have a huge thank you because i'm on the front lines. I'm the one that is really working down the trenches. And to be able to see the ice light up, to say yes, there are services and yes, you are wanted and employers do want to utilize your skill set. It's incredible. So again, a huge thank you from the citizens that have been disenfranchised for so long.
>> thank you. Anybody else?
>> okay. Let's go to the website then.
>> all right.
>> you can access the offender workforce development website from the main travis county page under quick links. It's under assistance. And once you click on assistance, you go to a larger page which will show that you can connect to the offender workforce development program. Right here you have our homepage. It gives the contact and the information about the orientation that we have every tuesday. These orientations are open to all people with criminal backgrounds. It lasts about an hour and a half. And when they leave this orientation, they leave with three or four job leads to offender friendly employers in the community. Again, i have to let individuals know when they come that we do not guarantee them a job because some people are under the misconception that i can give them a job with the county and i don't have that kind of pull. Okay. The next one is about us. Right here you will see that you have the psa where people can click on and hear that and know that travis county has banned the box and it gives a little information here. I'm not going to go over all these things because it's a lot of information. It talks about the press release here and our partnership with the offender workforce development nic partnership and how they came about to invite us to go out and do training with them. And then we have activities that we do, the deem does. We have employee breakfasts on a quarterly basis to encourage employers to hire people with a criminal background. We are now working with some progressive employers out in the community who are willing to sit down at the table with us to hear how we can work together and they'll be coming up with a criteria as to what type of offenders they would be willing to take. We have job fairs at the county, the county twice a year and at the state jail once a month at the end of the month. And miss cindy finnigan is the coordinator with that at the state jail and she's fantastic. Also here we have information for 10 tips for engaging employers for people who are wanting to understand what it takes to get an employer to come on board to hire people with a criminal background. We also have a form here online where if you want to you can fill it out, anybody that has a criminal background can fill it out to be a part of the program. We gather a lot of information regarding demographics, offense, education, if they have a driver's license, what kind of skills they have. And this is needed so we can be more effective in working with them. These he were testimonials that we gathered at the last conference we had in travis county. We had speakers there that talked about how great the conference was, how porn it is that we all collaborate with one another to work with individuals with criminal background. This is a 3d program that we have right now that is starting to work inside the state jail. Right now we're looking at trying to set that up, but we have been approved by tdcj to utilize space out there and to also work with the offenders. And like i said, i'm not going over all this, but you can see the different things that we have on there. Journey home is our faith-based component. It's one of the owds teams that came out of the training that we did in 2009. They are a faith-based group that goes into the travis county jail to mentor with women that have been -- that are in the pride program. Right now they have mentored or met with seven women, seven women, and they are also going to be working with women that are transitioning to the texas department of criminal justice and working with them, being a penpal to them, but working with them as they come out from prison. Here we're asking the people in the faith-based community to help us in being a part of this program by becoming mentors or hosting an employer breakfast for us or just being a part of the coalition where we can know what kind of re-entry programs they have within their churches. And here the top five reasons to hire the ex-offender is improved productivity, decreased turnover, good attitudes in the workplace, improves america's economy and it saves money. And again, that's for everyone to read. We have a short time here because i have someone else who is going to speak. And then we talk about incentives for employers. The two that i mentioned here are the work opportunity tax credit and the federal fidelity bonding. And again, there's some information there where they can go, the employers can go to find out how they can get these incentives and if they qualify for them. There's one on there that i just found out recently and it's a back to work texas program where if the person is receiving unemployment and he can -- the employer can get $2,000 for hiring him, so that's another incentive. Then our guidelines here in travis county regarding hiring ex-offenders. Of course we talk about ban the box. As many of you know, austin is the first -- travis county is the first county in texas to ban the box and the city followed suit right after that. So in the whole united states, the city and the county combined together, we're the first because that has not been done. I know that they're looking at doing this in bexar county, but we need to be proud that travis county was the first in texas to ban the box. And then i have a calendar here where people can see what kind of programs we have. We talk about the orientation, that we have an orientation at the county jail, second and fourth wednesday of the month, which isaiah goes out and presents to the offenders out there. So when they come out they don't have to go through orientation again. They can just come and i will see them or isaiah will see them one on one. And when we do that we look more in-depth into their background and see what is really keeping them from night getting a job. And then we look at the skills that they have and talk about education and further training they might need. And then of course we have other related links that they can go to. And then a contact number so that they can call me on are isaiah to get more information on this program. This is geared towards both employers and ex-offenders to be able to access. Here you have employers, ex-offenders and get involved at the very bottom of this first homepage. Any questions?
>> any questions or comments? At one time we were told that the -- a lot of ex-offenders have problems getting identification. Is that still an issue?
>> that's still an issue and i believe they're still working on getting together -- does anyone have a comment on that?
>> the recent legislation is making it with the taskforce that's been -- the statewide taskforce is in the process of making it where offenders have all their identification before they are release sod that they can be in a position of power when they're released. But that is not happening yet. But it's part of the new statewide taskforce initiative is to get everyone id.
>> so you had a wish list that the court would grant. What are the two most important resources that would make the program more successful.
>> wow. That's a big one.
>> me and isaiah and the volunteers are overwhelmed. Isaiah made a comment to me, i don't know how you did this by yourself, just the stuff you've given me is more than i can handle. So it would be staff. I would really need more staff.
>> we we need jobs, private sector, public, we need people to give them a chance. We need jobs. We need people willing to take a chance with these people. That's a big, big need all over. It's not going anywhere. Everyday that's a challenge.
>> that's why it's important that the faith community be involved, businesses be involved. I recently joined the hispanic association leadership program, and since i've been with them i've been networking. And that's where i got some two major employers that i'm speaking to right now that are willing to work with me. And i am so glad that the county and my bosses allowed me to get into this training because i'm working it, okay?
>> [ laughter ]
>> mary, you are a force of nature.
>> what i would like to do right now is also introduce a young woman that i met about two years ago. Her name is rhonda mack and she has a wonderful story to tell about her journey. I would like to her to tell it. I will turn it over to her. Her name is rhonda mack.
>> welcome.
>> good morning, judge, commissioners. Good morning to everybody. This is the first time i had a chance to see everybody all on board at one time. My story is a little bit unique. I see both sides of the spectrum. In 2000 i was a victim of domestic violence and my abuser committed a double homicide and the da for some reason felt that i was a part of the crime, even though all of the paperwork document that had he threatened my life, he threatened our child's life. And the da convicted me of assessry after the fact and told me that was to remind me to never get involved with someone like that again. I had never been in trouble before. I had -- up to that point i was a former military police officer and i was a army veteran by that time. I was also working my way through college. And when the conviction came down he again came right up to me face to face and told me i just did that to remind you to never get involved with somebody like that. And i had to make a decision. At that time i could either be a survivor or a victim. And i had a two-year-old daughter at that time and i decided to be a survivor. And since that time it has been a passion of mine to try to go back and reach back and reach out actually to women and men and people like me and other ex-offenders who have seen this side of the justice system because i actually felt victimized twice when i was convicted. And i had a really hard time finding a job from 2000 through 2007 when i met miss mary. And i was going back and forth between i didn't know what my on outlook was going to be, but i developed a phrase that has really helped me and miss mary and the staff has really helped to help me enforce that. And that is that black and white -- black letters on a white page do not equate a gray future. And miss mary has helped me bring that to fruition because of speaking with her and going through the owd program. And smoag me my options, showing me people in community that are willing to listen, whether you did commit the crime, whether you're wrongly convicted. They're actually listening to you and not treating you as a piece of paper. You are actually a human being. And i was able to through her program graduate from st. Edward's university. I'm now a grad student and my passion is to try to do at least a small portion of what miss mary does because it's just amazing to watch. And all the staff members, sheryl, we've had a couple of speaking engagements. I've really enjoyed the opportunity to come out and speak to others about the wonderful work that everybody here does because i again can see both sides. I had never been in trouble until that conviction. I have not been in trouble since that time. And i've had a really hard time trying to overcome the conviction even being a victim or a survivor of domestic violence. It's really hard sometimes to get employers to look beyond the box when it was there. Once they see you've checked that box, pretty much you will be put on the bottom pile. And i had to learn how to accept denial. I began to expect to be told no, that i would not be hired because -- i kept hearing you're a veteran, you are educated, you are well spoken, but you're a felon. And i had to try to make them see i'm not what's on this paper. And a lot of the employers were not willing to listen to the back story to that. But miss mary and her staff, they listened. And they were willing to help me with the resources in the community and really encourage me and motivate me and keep me uplifted to the point where i really felt like i can make a difference. And so i am in grad school and when the days get really hard and long i think about miss mary and i call her sometimes and check in and she's a whirlwind of just amazing magnificence. I really enjoy the staff. It's wonderful to hear how many people in the community are willing to work and listen, work on our behalf. In honor of miss mary and statistic staff here, my goal is to graduate and give back to my community. And really let everyone who has any felony conviction or any conviction know that you have the opportunity to turn your life around. It's a decision that you make, but most importantly i would like to be a representative to let employers know because i do have stable employment and i have had employment since 2008, and that is on behalf of the program. And i would like employers to know that if you hire an ex-offender you are going to have a really good employee because we know -- we've faced struggles and if we are able to be hired, if they give us a chance, we will be there everyday, we will do whatever you ask us to do. We are human. I tell others, you know, we bleed the same. You know, if we're cut we're going to bleed the same. There's nothing on that paper that makes me any different from you or any ex-offender. So we just ask for a chance. And we -- i'm really grateful. I think i speak on behalf of a lot of ex-offenders. We're really grateful and i want to say thank you for all of your hard work because really it fills me with emotion to see that there's so many warriors that are out here that are really working on our behalf and tirelessly because this is not an easy job. It's not easy being an ex-offender. And it's not easy working on behalf of the ex-offender because it's hard. The employers want to know what can they -- what can we offer them? And we can offer them a wonderful employee. And we can be a wonderful representative for all of these warriors who work so hard and the angels, warriors and angels who work so hard on all of our behalf. I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak today and again i want to say thank you to everybody here.
>> thank all of you. We appreciate all you do.
>> and that's our presentation.
>> okay. Backup indicates that we have assisted more than 16,000 and have helped more than 1800 find employment. How many trainers do we have? Over 300 oes trainers. Are you talking about the people who have gone through the training. Over 300 from all walks of life. Like i said, faith-based. We even had some ex-offenders attend the training because they want to give back to their community or build programs to help other ex-offenders. So we have a lot of individuals out there. I would like to see more adult probation officers attend the training because i've seen some reports out of new york that their whole adult probation offices have gone through this training and they have built programs, created programs through this training. So hopefully to get more adult probation and also parole officers on board to come to this training so they can all connect together and understand why it's important that they all are on the same page to make sure that the offender is a success.
>> okay. Court members, questions, comments office.
>> just amazing work.
>> it is. Keep it up. Let us know how we can continue to help.
>> more staff, more jobs.
>> [ laughter ]
>> are y'all still taking suits and interview clothes?
>> yes, we're still taking that.
>> over at airport boulevard?
>> if you have any of those you can contribute those to us also.
>> ventana del sol would like to say a few words.
>> if you have a seat, we would be happy to get your comments.
>> i'm rene gonzalez, the executive chef with ventana del sol. And our program we help to give culinary training to people in re-entry or trying to reenter society. We're a small program right now. And we would love any assistance to get us on the woia list so we can reach more. I get a chance to work with everyone up here on an almost daily basis. I believe we have a fantastic program. We have a four-week fast track program we have hostess, bus staffing. Tabc certification and portfolios so that -- and we also assist them in helping to find jobs. So getting on that list is extremely important to helping us reach more people.
>> what is the wia list?
>> workforce investment act. It's part of a federal program that provides funding for training. To get people either certifications or into new industries.
>> and you work with teenagers as well as young adults, right?
>> yes, we do. And like i said, we would love a chance to be able to reach more. We're very limited right now on the people that we can help, but the more that we can help, the more we would like to do, if you would just give us a chance. We're a tool ready for you guys to use.
>> [one moment, please, for change in captioners]
>> thank you.
>> thanks so much.
>> commissioner davis wishes for me to announce that he's in continuing education. And that is why he's away today. T.n.r. Near?
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 2:27 PM
