“This program was really designed to help people who had very significant barriers to employment overcome those barriers,” said Assistant JFS Director Shannon Glendon. “Over the last three-year period our employment success program has about a 35 to 38 percent success rate to connecting people to meaningful employment, having a higher wage than before they started."
The programs offer substance abuse and mental health counseling and employment preparation programs to identify and help bring down barriers to employment. Two contracts were awarded to Supports to Encourage Low-Income Families (SELF) for its “Getting Ahead in a Just Gettin' by World” and JOBS NOW programs, which offer life lessons and help with interview skills, resume writing, job searching online and “what to wear” for an interview tips, among other things.
She said when officials started the program most of their referrals came from the child support enforcement courts. Today, they are expanding their efforts to also help people who were displaced by the pandemic shutdown.
Many people were able to return to their old jobs, but some could not and need help finding a new career path, she said.
“One of the providers Omnicom who provides career readiness services, they are expanding their program to offer not only more career coaching but also a career readiness class that focuses on a career change,” Glendon said.
Access Counseling was providing services in the Middletown area but did not submit a bid. Glendon said under the renewed program officials are working with Community Building Institute of Middletown Inc. to provide work experience and job coaching.
For years, Job and Family Services contracted with Community Behavioral Health to provide assistance in breaking down barriers to employment. They were not displeased with CBH but decided to shop the service in 2017, given vast changes in the employment landscape through the years.
JFS Executive Director Bill Morrison modeled the new programs after Commissioner Cindy Carpenter’s Motherhood and Maternity Addiction Services (MAMAS) wrap-around program to get drug-addicted mothers clean, which has been a success story.
The MAMAS program includes residential treatment, recovery housing, life skills training, job search assistance and a support system, among other services.
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