City Mission-jail jobs program gets an initial thumbs-up
Cathy Zuback, left, and Cora Mitchell supervise the “Bridge the Gap” class at Washington City Mission.
Zack Mingo, foreground, is one of nine low-level offenders at Washington County jail who are participating in a job-readiness program at Washington City Mission.
Will Koster said he had simply “lost hope.”
“I had a good job and lost it. I had a family.”
An inmate at Washington County jail, hoping to rediscover hope, Koster signed up for “Bridge the Gap,” a job-readiness program being launched at Washington City Mission. It is the first joint venture between the mission and its neighbor across East Wheeling Street in downtown Washington, and is designed to prepare low-level offenders approved for work release to find meaningful employment following incarceration.
For Koster, it is hope rediscovered.
“You have to have hope in life,” he said. “With this program, you feel you have a chance. This can really help me. This is a great thing they are doing.”
Koster is one of nine men participating in “Bridge the Gap,” a training program consisting of three weeks of classes – Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. – that include instruction, advice, workbooks, videos, resume writing and lots of discussions about employment. Participants meet in a classroom and work independently in a computer lab.
Mission employees Cathy Zuback and Cora Mitchell supervise the class, which began Monday and hit the one-third mark Friday.
“This has been a very enthusiastic group,” said Zuback, vocational services manager at the mission. Her previous job was at the lockup, where she said she “realized how badly inmates needed a program like this. So I proposed the idea.”
Zuback did that last fall, to three jail officials and county Commissioner Diana Irey Vaughan. The proposal was eventually approved.
Candidates were tested to determine their attitudes, work interests and values. Zuback and Mitchell, the mission’s vocational training coordinator, developed a vocational profile.
“A few found they were qualified for occupations they never thought of or considered,” Zuback said.
The first day, Mitchell and Zuback helped prepare class members to look for work and assisted them with securing identifications such as Social Security cards, driver’s licenses and Pennsylvania IDs. They should get them by the end of classes March 3, or shortly afterward.
Later in the week, the instructors had their students write cover letters and resumes – more modern resumes featuring bullet points.
“Some guys had never done a resume,” Zuback said. “They took one major step forward in their lives.”
City Mission even provides the classmates with appropriate clothing to wear for job interviews. Zuback has a list of shirt, pants and shoe sizes for each man in the program.
“You can’t get a job if you’re in sweatpants and a T-shirt,” Ben Jenkins said with a smile.
On Thursday, the class visited the CareerLink office in Washington to learn more about effective job searches and networking.
“Bridge” got a resounding thumbs up from the students interviewed Friday morning.
“These ladies described all these programs I had no idea about,” said Zack Mingo. “We learned about OVR (state Office of Vocational Rehabilitation), federal bonding, what to do in a one-on-one interview. They refined my techniques in doing a resume.
“There are not a lot of programs for people who are incarcerated. I think every jail should have this.”
Chris McKune said, “If I had this (information) in high school, I never would have gone through what I’ve gone through – jail, incarceration. Guys get out (of jail), they don’t always know what to do. Change is difficult. This program is a lifesaver.”
“This,” Billie McCollim said, “has given me 10 times more tools that I need to look for a job.”
Tapping on a computer keyboard, Jenkins said he didn’t realize until recently how many job opportunities could be found online. “Probably 80 percent of the jobs are never posted,” he said. “Networking is a way to get a job. Be prepared and you have a chance to get hired.”
Jatrevton Bledsoe – a soft-spoken young man known as “J” – said he needs a job “and I don’t care how much I make. I need a check.” He said the program has provided a boost to his job-search skills, and his confidence.
“This lets me know someone cares about us even though we made mistakes and got locked up. It’s how you bounce back from mistakes.”
Although “Bridge the Gap” is but a week old, it has made a favorable impression beyond the City Mission walls. Classmate Bill Lowe said other inmates at the county jail “are asking about the program, how to get into it next. People ask, ‘What did you do today?'”
Participants actually will be involved in the program for a year, even if they leave jail and get jobs. Zuback said the mission will track job placements and follow up in other ways over the next 12 months.
City Mission’s link with the county jail also will extend to an Expungement Day on March 24. Zuback said the shelter has met with attorneys from Reed Smith in Pittsburgh to expunge certain inmates’ records. The ceremony, open to the community, is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to noon.
Week two of “Bridge the Gap” will begin Monday. Mingo, for one, eagerly anticipates a continuation of the program.
“I now feel I’m going to be successful,” he said.