Corrections Community

The ED/Va. just finished with the OWD training in Jan. 07.  We are trying to start up our program.  We met last week and identified the following priorities: ensure PACTS employment info is accurate; contact a pool of our local community resources to determine their current services; and identify a group of offenders for a pilot program (utilizing an assessment tool, OWD skills and community referrals) to follow to determine if our services  are working; identify employers.  For those of you that are more experienced, can you provide some direction on what might be best to get us up and running.

Hi, Mike!  It sounds like you and your team are off to a great start, and have accomplished quite a lot in a relatively short time period.  I've read your question, and I'm wondering if you might be a little more explicit. What type of direction are you seeking with regard to "getting up and running"?  For example, are you looking for samples of enrollment and referral forms, examples of how other folks have built buy-in and support with their internal and external partners, or are you requesting assistance regarding specific implementation issues?  If so, what are they? I think folks will have much to offer after they have a more clear understanding of what you need.  Thanks, Melissa

Are you planning on working with offenders or service providers. Also, do you have a target group? We set up a program working with probationers that is run out of the probation offices. We put together a 20 hour curriculum from the modules we received at NIC. We had 4 probation officers on our team and they run the groups in their respective counties. Unfortunately, they still for the most part have their probation duties so we have had varying results. Our best program is being run by the Albany County probation officer who has been put in charge of employment for his agency. Our team is also involved in training service providers around the state (including probation officers) for that we use a one day format of 7 hours. It has worked really well for us.

You make a good point, and I guess that just shows how expansive this program can be.  We will be working with offenders that are placed on supervision.  I am looking for advice on how (or if you did) change the methods people who are to implement some of the OWD methods.  For instance, we were given the OES CD's and we plan on doing some training with the other divisions in our district.  Did you provide that training to outside referral agencies?  Did you focus on certain OWD modules or eliminate some?  What were some of the initial programs you offered (Life skills, interviewing skills, job hunting skills) or did you just work with individual offenders?  Did you work as a group looking at the offenders that were referred or did individual officers handle the cases?  There are so many questions, and we're just looking for some good starting point.  It's my belief that once we have a couple of steps in place, the rest will grow naturally.  I appreciate your help.

Our situation in the federal system is that we have 3 divisions each with separate satellite offices.  Our division (Richmond) will be required to train the other divisions on the O.E.S. That is something I recommended to our chief in order to reduce the cost of future OWD training in the other divisions.  We plan on providing our services to offenders on supervision, but obviously not every case will need our assistance.   Our target group will be the chronically unemployed or underemployed offender.    What type of intial services did you offer (Job hunting skills, interviewing skills, life skills)?  How did you get outside agencies/employers to buy into the program? 

Thank you in advance for any help.

I hope I cover all of your questions. We decided that our mission, since we are a state probation sponsored program was to work with probationers. In NYS we have a small core of state probation workers (of which I am one) and county probation departments. We have 58 counties in NYS which run local probation, the state sets the rules and regulations. When my team attended the OWDS training in OKC two years ago, it was with at 6 member team. We have a Department of Labor representative, four probation officers and myself. My background is in employment before coming to state probation. We have what we call model resource centers in the state. We designated the counties with OWDS trained POs as model resource centers. The probation officers run job readiness groups using the curriculum from NIC which they gave us at the end of our training with modifications. We decided as a team on a curriculum using some of the NIC Modules plus a couple of others that we thought we needed. We have the following: Assessment,  Legal Issues and Financial Incentives, Job Applications, Job Interviews, Budget/Spending Plan, Employer Expectations, Barriers/Rsources, Job Retention, Job Search, Using the Local One Stop. We have 10 modules of 2 hours each for 20 hours. Our flexibility comes in on how it is delivered and the length of time it takes (one person does it in one week and one does it in 5) One of our facilitators uses speakers for almost every module while another prefers not to use very many. Besides running the job readiness groups we are also piloting a job retention group in one of the counties which we plan to export to all of the model resource centers. The OWDS are also available to surrounding counties to help train other probation officers who would like to begin a job readiness group. The other part of our program which is actually what we refer to as phase one involves training probation officers and other service providers. We include One Stop partners, parole officers, not for profits and other CBOs. To date we have trained over 400 service providers, including 258 probation officers. That is our one day 7 hour training which inludes Informal Assessments, Legal Issues and Financial Incentives, Barriers&Resources, Job Retention and Using the Local One Stop. We have have had 12 regional trainings since we finished our training in 2005. When we do the trainings for the service providers we have at least two but usually four or five trainers. We started out with all 6 at our first few trainings. We still have most of our team sitll actively involved. We are able to do as much as we do because the State Director who is my boss, is very much behind this employment program. We now have a team involved in the current New Mexico training. When they are trained we will have two more MRCs. I hope this has been helpful.

I see I did not address the outside agencies and employers questions. First we have our trainigs at the One Stops whenever possible, so they are on board. Secondly, one of our team members is from Dept. of Labor so it lends a sense of authenticity for employers and other agencies. Most of the outside agencies will work with our participants so we contact them and sometimes they are invited to be speakers and sometimes we refer our pariticipants to them. We try to let them know that this is not a competition but rather a complement to whatever they may be doing. Often they have not felt that probtion has been responsive to their request for collaboration and when they attend the trainings they are able to network so that probation officers and other service providers both benefit. As for employers we also use them as speakers for some modules "Employer Expectations, Interviewing, etc." They are usually glad to help. They are able to observe our participants which often leads to job opportunities. We also had a two county combined Employer Breakfast which was very successful where we had over 40 employers attend a 7:30 AM breakfast.  

Hello Ms. Blair:

Could you please tell me if the resources that you or that other officer have contacted are from the business community or the faith based community?

 

 

Actually both, for us it has been all about making those connections. The collaboration is what is really so good for all involved. They understand that we are first and foremost about public safety and that employment just happens to be one of the key components. We offer our services and they are willing to share their time, services and often job opportunities.

Cynthia: This is a good idea to speak to the One Stop Shops. Houston has a sucessful One Stop Shop fof companies wanting to do business in Houston. The Mayor has an Offender Program. I think we will tie in with the Mayor's Program and enlists the help of the One Stop Shop. This is a grat idea. Thanks Again!!!!

Sounds great that the Mayor is so supportive and with the Mayor on board you should  get a lot of cooperation. Good luck.