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“When we look at employment as a single intervention into homelessness and how it contributes to whole-person wellness, the results are pretty remarkable.”
– Sean Hubert, CCC Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer
On March 7th CCC hosted More Than A Paycheck, the first part of our 2024 Inside the Mission conversation series. Our distinguished panel helped explore how employment can play a role in recovery and housing stability, the challenges of getting a job as an individual with barriers, and what second chance employment looks like.
Clients with employment services on top of health or housing services are 5.5 x more likely to exit transitional recovery housing to permanent housing and 7.2 x more likely to complete SUDS treatment without readmission to detox. CCC is proud to offer three types of employment readiness programming:
- Community Volunteer Corps (CVC) — a volunteer program giving individuals living in CCC housing the opportunity to build skills to ease their transition into the workforce. CVC participants volunteer for non-profit organizations, providing them with an opportunity to develop valuable “soft skills” that can be used on a resume while building self-confidence within a work environment.
- Employment Access Center (EAC) — a one-stop shop for individualized employment services. We receive referrals from internal programs and external sources like government agencies and partner nonprofits. The EAC uses an evidence-based, SAMHSA-recognized Individual Placement and Support – Supported Employment (IPS-SE) model. This model has been shown to increase access to competitive employment and income; reduce symptoms of mental illness, inpatient hospitalizations, and psychiatric crisis visits; and improve self-esteem and overall quality of life.
- Social Enterprises — our social enterprise businesses serve dual purposes: advancing our mission while becoming more financially sustainable. Rooted in CCC’s overarching goals, these ventures provide employment opportunities for program graduates, contributing to their successful reentry into the workforce. These businesses include Central City Bed, Clean Start, and Central City Staffing.
Employment is Purpose
Angelo Polvorosa helped provide perspective on what it was like for them to reenter the workforce while in long-term recovery. Angelo was first introduced to CCC through Hooper Detox in 2018. Today, Angelo serves as an Employment Supervisor (more widely known as a Career Coach) at CCC, overseeing programs that connect clients to trade careers while also managing programs for CCC’s Family Alcohol and Drug Free Housing Network.
Angelo explained, “with individualized based services, everybody’s definition of success and career goals are going to be different. But, in the cycle of change, employment is maintenance…employment is purpose. It’s having confidence in that purpose.” Angelo expressed that this is one of the most prominent parts of the coaching they provide, to help clients be successful with employment, is helping build confidence back up.
Angelo’s ability to mentor clients is unique because they not only have lived experience but have worked a lot of different jobs. “I’ve seen some things people are going to face and now I get to pay it forward and do a whole, full circle every day”
A Second Chance
Individuals reentering the workforce with barriers like homelessness, recovery, or incarceration may have a more challenging time finding job opportunities. The sad reality is a good number of employers are nervous about hiring people with barriers. While CCC offers multiple programs to support our clients with their employment journey and is a second chance employer, partnering with other second chance employers is part of our “secret sauce.”
Integrity Traffic Oregon has been a trusted employer partner of CCC since 2023. They’re a committed second chance employer and have offered many training and flagging positions to CCC clients. Representing Integrity Traffic, branch manager Andrea Sepulveda discussed what it’s like being a second chance employer.
“When it comes down to it, our second chance employees are some of the most motivated individuals that we have, motivated to be better and be different than the way they were before.”
Andrea works directly with employment coaches, like Angelo, to identify potential candidates and provide ongoing support to employees. It helps Integrity Traffic, as an employer, have confidence knowing there is a support system behind each individual. Andrea noted as a second chance employer, the goal is to help build individuals up and “as a team, make sure they have the support they need to keep going and moving forward and not regress back.”
