(The Center Square) – Eight state detention centers and three workforce development boards in the western part of the state will orchestrate usage of a $4 million federal grant helping fund the North Carolina Pathway to Reentry.
Taxpayer money supplied through the U.S. Department of Labor’s Pathway Home grant program is expected to help people leaving incarceration find employment. The Division of Workforce Solutions in the state Department of Commerce is the lead grant recipient and will work with Charlotte Works, Foothills Workforce Development Board and Western Piedmont Development Board.
Inmates getting assistance will have been housed in the Alexander Correctional Institution, Caldwell Correctional Center, Catawba Correctional Center, Foothills Correctional Institution, Gaston Correctional Center, Marion Correctional Institution, Mecklenburg County Detention Center or the Rutherford Correctional Center.
North Carolina’s unemployment rate is 3.7%, and the county rate of each facility is between 3.8% (Alexander, Catawba) and 5.1% (Rutherford). Nine other counties are 5.1% or higher, all in the eastern part of the state.
The Commerce Department says the grant provides “prerelease, post-release, and follow-up activities for people transitioning out of incarceration. Pre-release activities will be delivered through workshops, small-group and one-on-one instruction, career counseling, advisement in employment, and training activities. This project will also provide services to help participants reacclimate to their community, starting within the first 72 hours of their release from incarceration.
“Post-release activities will help participants to set goals, develop action plans, identify education and training needs, and learn new skills to work toward readiness for specific jobs. The NCWorks system will connect the individuals with apprenticeships and other types of work-based learning in collaboration with ‘second-chance’ employers. Wraparound support services will continue to follow the participant through the entire 24-month training period. Follow-up services will include monthly meetings with participants to determine their continuing needs for training, employment, and supportive services.”
