Local Program Reaches Out To Ex-Offenders

Domnick Hadley
CALL Staff Writer

Each One,
Reach One

    Class is in session in Room 255 at the historic Lincoln building.
    Standing before a crowd of nearly 10 students, Gregory Dallas Lee prepares for the day’s instruction.
    But by all accounts, this isn’t you’re typical classroom.
    There’s no American flag hovering over the doorway or desks ordered into neat rows. There’s just a conference table, office chairs and students –men and women, young and older — ready to learn.
    Their lesson for the day: how to obtain employment in a society that has labeled them as unworthy of employment.
    The instructor and all the students are ex-offenders, and the workshop  is designed to teach them the skills necessary to successfully obtain employment.
    The workshop, which is part of a week-long program, is facilitated by Beyond The Conviction, a non-profit organization that provides employment and empowerment services to ex-offenders.
    Once participants complete a brief orientation, they begin a rigorous schedule of three-hour workshops which cover everything  from how to answer questions about a prior conviction to building a resume with or without legitimate work history.
    “Do we have any phlebotomists here?” Lee calls out to the crowd.
    With puzzled looks on their face, no one one answers.
    “If you’ve every shot up or used a needle, you have phlebotomy skills,” he interjects with a smile.
    Such is the basis for the program’s curriculum, which uses “unconventional” strategies to help their clients obtain jobs.
    The program’s support staff, all of whom are ex-offenders, provide customized services to each client that walks through their doors.
    “I can’t get you the job,” Lee tells the class as he motions throughout the conference room. “But we try to streamline a process that makes the job search easier.”
    For those clients without any legitimate work history, they help translate “street” skills into a marketable resume.
    “We are grassroots people like you all,” Lee says. “Perception is reality in the eyes of a stranger. We take the things we did in the streets and turn them into visible words and tools.”
    In addition to building resumes, they provide a host of personalized services including: pre-interview grooming services, basic hair cut and proper clothing for interviews; individualized placement assistance/assessment; job matching; and retention advocacy services.
    But aside from the tangible resources, the organization’s support staff provides a more valuable resource: empathy.
    As to be expected, many of the organization’s clients have endured numerous rejections from potential employers.
    That frustration, after hearing “no” so many times, emanates through their speech as they sit through the workshops.
    One participant tells the story of how a past weapon charge prevented him from entering a training program for heavy machinery work.
    “I went through all their tests and they said, ‘we looked at your background and we saw that you had an unlawful use of a weapon charge. That was a slap in the face,” he explains.
    To counteract that frustration, the staff provides an ear and knowledge that only experience can bring.
    They listen and embrace each experience, and offer advice to help them overcome their obstacles.
    “We talk with them not at them,” said Edwin Templeton, facilitator for Beyond the Conviction. “Everyone who works here is an ex-offender, so the communication between the client is clear. There is more empathy.”
    One participant, who wanted to remain anonymous, says the program’s personalized techniques proved successful for him.
    He served 15 years in prison on various felony convictions. Before coming to the program, he tried other employment agencies which offered little help.
    Of those programs, he said, “It’s like a numbers thing. It’s kind of impersonal and a little remedial.”
    After completing the week-long workshops, he was able to build a resume and sharpen his interviewing and computer skills.
    They even provided him with clothing, which he said helped him immensely.
    The end result: he was able to secure a job as a production manager with a local manufacturing plant which he started last week.
    In fact, he says when he interviewed for the position, one of the company representatives said they wouldn’t have given him an application had he not been dressed appropriately.
    “When I went to apply for the job, it was strictly on my performance that the woman at the plant took my application,” he said.
    While many of the program’s clients are successful, many of the staff agree that society attaches a stigma to most ex-offenders that prevent many from succeeding.
    “(Society believes) that we will never change. Like we are cursed,” said Youth Coordinator Samuel Anderson, who volunteered to serve on the staff after participating in a few workshops. “We got caught and a lot of them didn’t. I guess they figure they are holier than thou and the good Lord won’t see us through our situation.”    

The Birth Of Beyond
The Conviction
    Beyond the Conviction was founded in November 2006 by Patrick Danley, a former drug trafficker.
    Danley, who graduated from Lincoln university with a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies, has a background that dates back to his teenage years.
    “I’ve been in the drug game for my whole life,” Danley said. “My father was a kingpin who grew weed in the front yard.”
    Danley says he followed in his father’s footsteps, selling and trafficking marijuana through a rental car business he operated while attending Lincoln university.
    After graduating, Danley continued trafficking and later served six months in prison after being caught with several pounds of marijuana in Texas. Because he wasn’t a violent offender, Danley was released in six months as part of Texas’ Second Chance program.
    The program stipulated that he could never return to Texas, so he moved to El Carte, Ind., with a white Buick and $1,200 in his pocket.
    While in El Carte, Danley worked odd jobs and eventually earned a position as a job coach for ex-offenders and people with disabilities. He was later promoted to employment specialist.
    He eventually moved back to Kansas City and obtained a position with IAM Cares, a vocational rehabilitation program. He was later terminated after they learned of his criminal history.
    “I got my first letter . . . you have a felony conviction,” Danley said.
    That led him to search for jobs that would not dwell on his criminal history — barbering and personal training. He also continued to sell marijuana on the side.
    While conducting a drug transaction at a local festival, Danley came across a booth for the Full Employment Council and was later hired as a job counselor.
    “In 2001, I started as a career counselor,” he said. “They were giving me the worst people. A hermaphrodite who bought real estate as a man and sold it to himself as a woman….women with 10 kids who wanted to be models. I was able to give them tangible tools to get them a job or certificate.”
    Danley decided to leave FEC. His job contacts, coupled with his relationships with other agencies, helped him create Beyond the Conviction.
    While placing ex-offenders in jobs is his main motivation, Danley says he adds a more personal approach absent from other programs.
    “We’ve all been there,” Danley says about his staff. “A lot of staff (at other staffing agencies) don’t realize what it’s like being in jail. The jails are releasing people at a sporadic rate with no job training. We do ala carte servicing.”
    That ala carte servicing includes transportation assistance, an explanation letter which clients provide to potential employers explaining their conviction and a computer diskette with 1,500 ex-offender friendly companies.
    All those things make the difference, according to members of the staff.
    “Some of the stuff I kind of new but there were a lot of things I didn’t know,”  said Director of Operations Don Anthony Bell Johnson, who recently secured a grant to start his own business. “What helped me basically was the job search techniques, the questions in response for what to actually look for. He told me how to look exactly at the application and go through it. I knew this before but it’s like something that you just kind of take for granted.”
    “(The program) is phenomenal,” said Marquita Pointdexter, who went through the program and now works for a local social service organization. “Patrick teaches us about our etiquette and our presentation. It’s outside of paperwork. It’s how you present yourself.”
    The organization receives donations from individuals and small organizations, Danley said. But much of the operating funds used comes from Danley.
    “There is not another agency that I know of, that works solely with ex-offenders. That is why Beyond the Conviction is needed so desperately,” said Betty J. Johnson, vice president of the organization. “The name, ‘Beyond the Conviction’ says what we need to look at in the most serious way.”    
    For more information about the program or to make a donation, contact Beyond The Conviction’s office at (816) 513-6824. They are currently in need of unused professional clothing and general operating materials.