NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR JOB SUCCESS AFTER INCARCERATION WITH COUNTY-WIDE “SECTOR” PROGRAM
Innovative program combines training, paid work experience, and mental health support to help hundreds enter high-growth sectors with living wage careers
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Office of Diversion and Reentry (ODR), together with six community-based partner organizations, has launched Skills and Experience for the Careers of Tomorrow (SECTOR), a $4 million-annual program aimed at helping people who have been involved in the justice system develop the skills they need for well-paying jobs with opportunities for career advancement. Offered across Los Angeles County, the program combines an innovative sector-based approach with services tailored to the needs of those it serves.
SECTOR will provide justice-system-involved adults with the help they need to support themselves and their families through long-term employment. Skills training and paid work experience will help participants earn industry-recognized credentials, and the program offers financial assistance, with stipends during skills training, paid work experience, and incentive payments for participation and job retention, as well as supportive services such as mental health and coaching from staff who themselves have lived experience of the justice system. It aims to serve 500 participants in its first year.
“It’s impossible to overstate the importance of a good job to success after jail or prison,” said Peter Espinoza (Judge-ret.), director of ODR. “Persistently high unemployment rates for people with justice involvement tell us just how big a challenge they still face. SECTOR will give them a path to a career and the support they need as they walk that path.”
The program, funded by a Prop 47 grant from the Board of State and Community Corrections, serves participants over the age of 18 who have been arrested, charged with, or convicted of a criminal offense and who have struggled with mental health challenges or substance use disorder.
SECTOR provides training and paid work experience opportunities to help participants obtain skills and credentials that are in demand by employers. Selected industries have demonstrated strong potential for growth and for career advancement in Los Angeles County, including the construction trades, information technology, health care, and green jobs.
“We look forward to providing workforce development to our young people, who have often had difficult challenges in their past,” said Bill Bedrossian, the CEO of Covenant House CA, a SECTOR community partner based in Hollywood. “We are confident that the SECTOR program will enable us to help them explore career paths that will lead to livable wages, vocational joy, and a lifetime of stability and success.”
“It’s one thing for someone to tell you, ‘I get what you feel,’ but it’s another thing when they can say, ‘I’ve been down this same road,’” said Julio (a pseudonym), a career counselor at Paving the Way, a SECTOR community partner based in the Antelope Valley, who was himself previously incarcerated. “Once people see that it is possible to move forward, it gives them optimism in a situation that can seem pretty bleak.”
Employers, in turn, are excited at the prospect of well-trained new workers.
“When Janie [Hodge, Executive Director of Paving the Way] and I met back in 2010, I immediately knew we shared the same passion for changing lives through education,” said Glenn Bland, owner of Bland Solar, which will both train and employ SECTOR participants enrolled with Paving the Way. “I’m more excited now than at any time in my career regarding the renewable energy industry, and I love being a part of SECTOR.”
