Two months into a new life after prison, Mahdi Henderson walked into Project M.O.R.E. in search of a full-time job — thinking of his three-year-old son, the anchor for his dreams of financial security. Henderson was one of over 60 people to fill the organization’s 830 Grand Ave. headquarters at a job fair on Thursday morning. The fair was organized by Career Resources, Inc., a Connecticut-based nonprofit that operates a variety of career training and job coaching programs, in partnership with Project M.O.R.E. There, the attendees could meet with a variety of prospective employers tabling at the event: the behavioral health nonprofit Marrakech, the electric connector manufacturer Radiall, the home care agency Senior Helpers, training and job placement agencies Nesco Resource and Entry Point Staffing (an affiliate of Career Resources), and the reentry transition organization EMERGE. Chloe Dandrea pitches assembler, technician, and inspector roles at Radiall. The room buzzed with dialogue not only about resumes and job applications, but about the internal healing that’s often necessary for anyone transitioning out of prison into a new life. Project M.O.R.E. Vice President Nichelle Hilton said that several local halfway houses brought residents to the job fair, and that the organization plans to host a similar event with different employers alongside Career Resources in April. “Reentry is Between the Ears and Behind The Eyes” Collaborators Kevin Paulin of Winning Ways, Nichelle Hilton of Project M.O.R.E., and Marco Ramirez of Career Resources. Thursday’s job fair was a place where applicants could have confidence that employers would at least be open to the prospect of hiring someone with a criminal record. That’s not always the case, said Mary Valdovinos, who manned the Entry Point table. Marco Ramirez, a senior job developer at Career Resources, said he usually advises job applicants to “try to be themselves” — to speak naturally, rather than attempting to put on a forced personality, while connecting with potential employers. Valdovinos noted that in addition to simply being rejected due to their records, people transitioning out of prison may lack a government ID or stable housing, which can also disqualify them from job opportunities. For clients who need a professional outfit for job interviews, Project M.O.R.E. is collaborating with the financial literacy organization Winning Ways to provide suitable attire. The organizations are jointly collecting lightly used clothing donations — including, but not limited to, professional wear — at the 830 Grand Ave. headquarters. Reese Keitt, the recruitment and outreach coordinator at EMERGE, stressed that people exiting incarceration often need to heal from the experience of being in prison, and from the factors that led them to be incarcerated, as they transition into full-time job responsibilities. Keitt highlighted EMERGE’s approach of supplementing part-time job training and employment opportunities with community building and mental health support, ranging from “Real Talk” group dialogues to one-on-one life coaching to yoga instruction. “Reentry is between the ears and behind the eyes,” he said. Henderson said that Thursday’s job fair gave him more hope than anything so far in the process of looking for a job. “I’m upfront and transparent” about having a record when applying for work, he said, since “I know that they’re going to find out” anyway. “It’s genuine. I learned from my mistakes,” said Henderson. “I just hope people can take me at face value, rather than looking at a piece of paper” and judging him solely on his past. He said that he’d been in and out of prison since he was 14 years old, most recently incarcerated for about three years on a gun charge. It was during this most recent term that Henderson asked himself: Why are you still in this? He thought about his son, Mahdi Jr., who was five months old at the time. Henderson’s own father had been incarcerated during his childhood. He saw himself repeating a cycle — and resolved to make a permanent change. Each time he’d left prison before, he realized, “I was trying to live a new life as the same person.” He started to imagine not only the version of his life that he wanted to have, but the version of himself that he truly wanted to be. An “entrepreneur,” a champion of financial literacy, an advocate for mindfulness. A person who one day lives on a homestead, independent and self-sufficient, with a legacy to leave for his son. Henderson started to read up on financial literacy while still incarcerated, preparing himself to become that person he imagined. He envisioned a full-time job as a way of “buying my time back.” Now, Henderson is living in a halfway home in the Dwight neighborhood. He’s getting to know his son, who’s now a toddler. Their favorite game to play together now is pretending that the floor is lava. On Thursday, Henderson found himself drawn to EMERGE’s transitional construction job opportunities, as he has prior experience in carpentry. He was also interested in the Senior Helpers opportunity. He currently has part-time employment as a caregiver for his mother — an experience that has “opened my eyes to home care” as a field. In the long run, Henderson sees himself helping to break the cycle of incarceration not only for his son, but for youth like the teenager he used to be. Nodding to the job fair, he said, “I definitely see myself on the other side of this in the future.” The post Reentry Job Fair Draws 60 appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less