Probation & Parole partners with TRC to offer manufacturing class

The Poplar Bluff Community Supervision Center has partnered with Three Rivers College to offer a class for those justice-involved individuals to get training in manufacturing.

The partnership comes after the Center, which is a facility of the state Probation and Parole (P&P), was restructuring last year — part of which was about bringing in more community resources.

“I think we all have the same goal which is to give these clients who have barriers — a lot of them are lack of job skills, education, lack of employment — to give them the ability to obtain a job that will also in turn reduce recidivism for our community,” said Heather Liszewski, probation parole officer. “It gives them purpose and the ability, with this class, to actually obtain a job that will open doors.”

Kendric McCain, Joseph Eldridge and Eric Matlock work on an assignment on circuits for the Industrial Production Technician class. DAR/Michael Shine

The justice-involved individuals are participating in an eight-week class through TRC in Industrial Production Technician. Will Cooper, director of workforce development, said the class covers the different aspects of manufacturing such as electrical and gives students a step up because it teaches an understanding of how the equipment works.

“For our job market, primarily for our population, the factory-based employment is where they’re finding the most work,” Liszewski said. “Those are the employers who are the most willing to work with our clients.”

Liszewski’s office serves four counties — Butler, Wayne, Ripley and Carter — with 1,500 people supervised. She said 43.74% of those are unemployed.

Student Joseph Eldridge uses wires to test the strength of the electrical currents. DAR/Michael Shine

Liszewski said the class started with eight students, but now half way through, the class is down to a core four or five. Cooper said it isn’t unusual for participation to drop after a class gets started.

“Given the nature of the course itself and the demands,” Cooper said. “Because it’s not an easy ‘Hey, we’re going to hand you a certificate’ program, you’re going to have some attrition. So that’s perfectly normal for the type of program it is.”

All five students said they’ve been having a positive experience with the class. One student, Kendric McCain, said he wanted to thank those involved for setting up the opportunity. While each had different reasons for participating ­— from Crystal Crump who plans to get a masters degree and said any certificate will help to Joseph Eldridge who said he hopes it’ll help with a career — all of the students said they thought it would help them moving forward.

“I believe it’ll help me with a lot of things,” Eric Matlock said. “A lot of little bitty things I didn’t know before. It keeps me thinking.”

The partnership really started when Richard Rossi, SkillUP recruitment/retention specialist, approached Liszewski about figuring out something the two organizations could do together for the justice involved. Liszewski said it ended up being perfect timing with the new focus P&P was looking to take.

“It was important to me to service that group of people,” Rossi said. “I don’t judge one or the other, but it was just here we are and they needed the help and it was perfect.”

The two main hurdles that had to be faced were the funding and a place to have the class.

Originally, the plan was to go through the SkillUP program. However, in order to qualify for that program, the student needs to be receiving food stamps and many of the justice-involved individuals interested in the class didn’t qualify since they live in state housing. Which is when Cooper came into the project and they started looking for other funding sources.

One of the additional funding sources ended up coming through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which is designed to help people access employment, education, training and support services to succeed in the labor market and match employers with skilled workers.

Through funding options, the trio were able to make it so that the class is at no cost for the justice-involved individuals.

The class is being taught at the P&P facility, which Liszewski said is convenient since all of those participating live in the facility. She said one of the challenges was determining where to house the class since some of the justice-involved individuals have felony convictions, which would interfere with TRC’s vetting process.

“We have a thorough vetting process so they would have to go through a big long process,” Cooper said. “So it worked out that we could do it over the summer at her facility so we didn’t even have to address that issue.”

All three said they think the partnership is going well and that those justice-involved individuals who have stuck with the class are invested in doing well with it.

“The ones that are sitting in the classroom right now, want to be successful,” Rossi said. “They’re putting in the work. I think overall, we’ve had to learn a lot but overall it’s been a very successful outcome. If they’re here halfway in, then there’s a really good possibility that they’re going to go through until the end and we’re excited about that.”

While the class was capped at 12 students due to safety and quality of education concerns and any future classes would be as well, Cooper said there’s the possibility of continuing the partnership with one or more classes to address the need as it arises. The partnership will continue, he said.

“We definitely want to work with them so that we can continue this,” Liszewski said. “It benefits our clients, which in turn benefits the community.”

The students all had the same general sentiment as Jason Sweet.

“I know I’m going to have the knowledge to better myself in life,” he said.