San Diego

Job Opportunities Offer Second Chances

CEO San Diego Mixer with San Diego Homeless Court

Center for Employment Opportunities and the San Diego Homeless Court come together to acknowledge and celebrate the achievement of helping justice-impacted individuals turn their lives around.

San Diego County Advances Equity in Job Hiring for Formerly Incarcerated

A new County ordinance builds on the state’s Fair Chance Act to give people with a criminal past a better chance of gaining jobs in the unincorporated area.

Second Chance Job Fair for People Seeking Reentry Employment

More than 150 people attended an employer seminar and job fair this week for National Second Chance Month. The job fair is designed to help justice-involved individuals reenter the workforce through committed fair chance employers.

Job Fair Hosted for Justice-Involved People Seeking Employment for Reentry

As part of National Second Chance Month, more than 200 people, many of whom had been previously incarcerated and are now looking for a fair chance to be part of the workforce, attended an employer seminar and job fair.

Opinion: I got out of jail in February. Let me tell you about the job training that changed my life.

Some of my happiest memories are of my days playing baseball in San Diego’s Logan Heights, as the pitcher on my Little League team, the Little Padres, at Memorial Park. My mom loved to watch me and my older brother, who was our catcher.

Opinion: How do we help formerly incarcerated people lead better lives? Digital skills training

When the pandemic took hold in 2020, remote work became a reality for millions of Americans — making digital skills even more necessary for job seekers.

Opinion: As a 58-year-old who was in prison for 40 years, I didn’t even know how to use a cellphone

After serving almost four decades in prison, I look at my wonderful life and can’t believe how blessed I am to have a career, a home and a loving fiance. It wasn’t a given, and it took hard work and a commitment to learn that helped me get on a career path.

Opinion: I was facing years in prison for a burglary charge. Here’s how I turned my life around.

In June 2019, a South County Superior Court judge gave me a choice between accepting 12 years to life in prison or choosing the stringent conditions of a plea agreement and rebuilding my life after a burglary charge. I chose my life. After a year in the George Bailey Detention Facility, I was released with five years of probation. I completed a 90-day residential drug treatment program and attended a sober living program at Interfaith Community Services. I was determined to turn my life around, and I did.

Opinion: After prison, it was hard to find work and start over. I now make it easier for others.

It’s been 22 years since I walked out of prison with a GED diploma, a handful of program certificates I earned “inside” and a mixture of fear and optimism about what was ahead of me. Looking back from the place where I now get to help people who are in the same position I was that day in March 2000, I was right to be afraid.

California gives people leaving prison just $200 to start over. After 50 years, that could change

A California lawmaker wants to increase the allowance that people released from prison receive to cover basic needs for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Opinion: Addressing biases and barriers can help solve worker shortage

Employers across California are asking, “Where can we find workers?” The truth is that many hundreds of thousands of Californians are locked out of opportunity. And it doesn’t have to be that way. Many of our state’s most pressing economic challenges are the consequence of inaction. In this case, more than 55,000 Californians come home from incarceration each year and, without jobs or other options, about 50 percent go back to prison within three years.

San Diego ‘Gets It Done’ — 7,000 Tons of Trash Removed from Public Spaces

Three years into a citywide effort to keep San Diego clean and safe, Mayor Kevin Faulconer brought together partners of the city’s Clean SD program Tuesday to highlight the progress in removing more than 7,000 tons of trash, debris and waste from public spaces across the city.

San Diego Center for Employment Opportunities helps former inmates find jobs

One local organization is giving jobs to hundreds of people who were formerly incarcerated. Elizabeth Alvarez was live with Robert Smith from the Center for Employment Opportunities to talk about how the organization helps former inmates get back on their feet after prison.