| New Reentry Program Cleans Up
A Work Ventures employee. |
With any new program, one expects difficulties or kinks that
need to be worked out, because that's how things are
when you make a start.
However, when asked about Work Ventures, his reentry program
that began only last August, Keith Vermillion, Director of
the Savannah Impact Program (SIP), said, "No problems."
Small but successful, Work Ventures is a community services
and employment-based program that provides training, employment,
and educational opportunities to supervised offenders. SIP,
an intensive probation and parole supervision, juvenile outreach,
and offender employment program, worked in collaboration with
Weed and Seed and the city of Savannah 's
Property Maintenance Department to start the program. Property
and Maintenance's Trent Chavis approached Vermillion
with the idea and together they convinced City Manager Michael
Brown and Mayor Otis Johnson to give the program the go-ahead.
SIP serves approximately 700 parolees annually, many of whom
live in Weed and Seed sites. Since its inception in 2001, SIP
has evolved by providing a range of services with emphasis
on employment that includes referring offenders to job opportunities
and actively working with community employers to hire them.
The most challenging group of felons needing employment consists
of youth and young adults ranging from ages 17 to 25. Offenders
within this age bracket often lack education, marketable skills,
experience, and a work history, all of which employers usually
require.
Work Ventures tries to provide opportunities for stable work
for these young adults. Presently, the project focuses on landscaping,
receiving notification on specific privately owned properties
(such as overgrown lots and abandoned structures that are in
a state of neglect) that need to be cleaned and cleared. Vermillion
would like to expand to basic construction by boarding up and
securing the abandoned buildings located on these sites.
Work Ventures ensures that participants' skills are
constantly improving and that companies have a pool of talented
and capable people from which to choose, because businesses
and communities are linked by the value of services or local
employment they provide, Vermillion said.
Parolees and probationers supervised by SIP are referred by
their supervising officer and then interviewed by the maintenance
supervisor. Work Ventures only accepts referred individuals
who do not have any current violations and who have not tested
positive for drugs. If approved, parolees/probationers are
referred to the agency with which the city contracts for temporary
labor. They are then screened, and, after they complete an
application, they can begin work.
The crew presently consists of a maintenance supervisor, a
lead worker, and two maintenance workers. Terence Eiland, a
probationer in the Work Venture program, said he feels very
confident about finding jobs in the future but for now is quite
content to serve his community.
Many parolees will probably look back on this stage of their
lives with the belief that it was the most important turning
point, said Weed and Seed Coordinator Yvonne Segar Davis. "They
have had to make adjustments, grow, and make some hard decisions
about the direction their lives will take. While no one can
make these decisions for them, they do need some help with
the process," she said. "SIP assists
those [who] have not been in the workforce with self-confidence,
direction, and job-search techniques."
The feedback from the community has been the best one could
expect. One community asked the crew to come to their monthly
meeting so they could be thanked for a job well done. The city
has demanded that private contractors doing the same type of
labor as Work Ventures improve their level of service to match
the standards of the Work Ventures program. With such glowing
feedback, SIP plans to double the number of offenders employed
by Work Ventures, and Vermillion said he would like to add
an additional landscaping crew and a construction crew.
For further information, contact:
Yvonne Segar
Davis
Weed and Seed Coordinator
912-651-3653
Keith Vermillion
SIP Director
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