Back in early September, I was watching TV at Oregon State Penitentiary when I saw an announcement about an in-house job fair. Hosted by the 7th Step Foundation, it would take place at the end of the month. To prepare, I sent a letter asking to be put on the list of attendees, made sure I had a clean shirt, and handwrote six mini-resumes on 3-by-5 index cards.
When I climbed the stairs to the activities floor, the first thing I noticed was that it looked like a real job fair. There were over a dozen tables with a mix of public agencies and private companies, like Oregon Vocational Rehabilitation, American Welding and Manufacturing, and Union Pacific Railroad. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, the presenters cheerful and eager to help, the job seekers smiling and hopeful.
I headed over to Opportunity Oregon, an employment agency specifically for ex-convicts co-founded by Nancy Pance, who herself is formerly incarcerated. I had a great talk there and was reminded I needed to send them my application ahead of my release in two years.
Next I headed over to Dave’s Killer Bread. I talked with them about their founder Dave Dahl and his commitment to hiring formerly incarcerated people. Dahl had served 15 years in prison before founding the company.
I noticed that a couple of booths, including Bridges to Change, were advertising for peer support specialists, peer recovery mentors and drug and alcohol counselors. This was a great opportunity since OSP has a peer support specialist training program.
My next step was transformative. I talked with two gentlemen representing the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The union representatives seemed relaxed and smiled genuinely during our conversation. They reminded me of young college professors as they told me about a kind of electrician that worked with fiber optic, telephone and data/ethernet networks. The job paid during the training period and it only took three to three and a half years to become a limited energy electrician. I was shocked.
Many other tech jobs, like computer programming, effectively ban felons due to extensive background checks. Before prison, I worked extensively with data and ethernet networks as an IT technician. Talking to the reps from IBEW, I realized that as a limited energy electrician I would be able to set up exciting environments such as data centers and high-tech offices. I got as much literature from the table as I could and look forward to applying upon my release.
Ultimately, this job fair gave myself and others hope: hope that one day we will have the pride and dignity of a family-supporting job. I am grateful that these companies came behind bars to let us know that we have a valued place in the labor market.
