SOUTH BEND -- Wilma Rios struggled to find work in the past. Having to explain her criminal history didn’t make it easy to stand out in a positive way to employers.
“Jail was a revolving door for me,” Rios said while sitting inside a classroom at the St. Joseph County DuComb Center.
But things have changed for the 36-year-old, who is on work release at DuComb. She recently landed a job at a local restaurant. She owes much of her success, Rios said, to one woman and one class — Alicia Brown and Fresh Attitudes for New Success.
FANS completed its first, five-week class at DuComb on April 10 and has since started its second session. The goal of the class is to help those transitioning back into the community from incarceration to have the skills to find jobs. The participants meet once each week for about two hours to learn to become more confident as well as how to market their job skills and address their criminal past while talking about the positive changes they’ve made.
Brown designed the class based on her own experience. The 36-year-old spent nearly four years in prison for prescription fraud.
While incarcerated, Brown was given the book “Jails to Jobs: Seven Steps to Become Employed,” and took to heart the lessons she learned. Once out of prison, Brown got a job at the St. Joseph County Humane Society. It was dirty work, but as the book taught her, she stuck it out for six months to build work history. After that she got a new job working the front desk at a local hotel.
But after getting her life back on track, Brown wanted to do more. When someone gets out of prison, Brown said, they are given maybe $50 and little else. There’s no real guidance or help on how to get a job and get back to being part of society, she said. and without getting steady work, many struggle finding housing and eventually return to the crimes that first got them in prison.