A $4 million funding boost from the feds will help hundreds of Massachusetts’ inmates prepare for jobs, reenter society, and “restart their lives,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia said in Boston on Tuesday.
Scalia announced $90 million in Reentry Employment Opportunities grants to 26 recipients across the U.S. — including $4 million for Volunteers of America of Massachusetts, which will benefit the Essex County Reentry Vocational Training Center.
“All of the grants are for programs to help men and women leaving the criminal justice system to prepare for successful careers,” Scalia said inside the U.S. Department of Labor regional office in Boston’s JFK Federal Building.
The services will put inmates “in a stronger position to restart their lives,” he said.
The $4 million Pathway Home grant is a “significant investment,” said Charles Gagnon, CEO and president of Volunteers of America of Massachusetts.
The grant will help the organization offer services designed to help ease the inmates’ transition back to society, including education and training, job preparation, career exploration and planning, legal assistance, counseling and more.
“It’s really about getting people back to work, have them healthy and stable so they will not recidivate back into corrections,” Gagnon said.
The Essex County Reentry Vocational Training Center serves 550 participants. The program trains and certifies participants in an array of programs, including asbestos removal and hardscaping.
The job training is “huge,” added Essex County Sheriff Kevin Coppinger.
“A lot of these inmates don’t have job skills,” he said. “Collectively, we’re going to work to make those job skills become a reality.”
He also noted that post-incarceration services through this program are key.
“Now with partnering with the Volunteers of America of Massachusetts, they pick up the ball — not only inside the jail but they can continue it outside the jail,” Coppinger said. “And make sure these individuals get a whole range of other services that they may need getting back into the community.”
This training program makes inmates leaving jail much more competitive for jobs, said Edward Dolan, commissioner of the Massachusetts Probation Service.
“That’s a huge leg-up and overcomes a huge impediment,” Dolan said.
As the economy reopens and jobs return amid the coronavirus pandemic, Scalia said that Volunteers of America of Massachusetts and “the men and women participating in this program will be one welcome, important part of that bounce back.”
