The Iberia Probation and Parole office partnered with a New Chapter PUSH, PMI, and SLCC’s TRIO Educational Opportunities department to hold a job fair at their office on Adrian Street Monday.

Seven jobs were offered to residents and there were many other success stories.

The event began at 9 a.m. and saw a steady stream of applicants and parole clients appear throughout the day. Because they held the event at the probations and parole office, parolees unaware of the employment and education opportunities had a chance to benefit from them.

Sylvia Rivera with PMI Energy Solutions conducted interviews with applicants on the spot. She hired applicants for positions at a facility in Port Fourchon, Louisiana. There, they clean tanks for offshore vessels.

Successful applicants will work 14 days and have seven days off. PMI provides them shelter, food, a laundromat, and a gym. They offer workers with only general skills $12 an hour to start, but give them a raise following early performance reviews after 90 days.

“I believe in second chances,” Rivera said.

SLCC’s TRIO Department of Educational Opportunities offered visitors educational Opportunities like the HiSET (Formerly GED) program. They also assist with college admissions and financial aid applications. Traditionally, individuals in the HiSET program paid out of pocket for books and classes. Trio will pay for the program if individuals apply through them. Additionally, they are eligible to receive a $500 scholarship towards further education.

Executive Director Patricia Rodriguez got her GED at 38, and she said it totally changed her life. She dropped out in the 9th grade, and worked as a bartender for years, but struggled with her kids and her late, long hours. She decided to get her GED to help her support her kids.

“I needed to be able to help my kids, and to be a role model they could look up to. Now I do something I’m truly proud of<” Rodriguez said. “My kids saw me and said mom could do it.”

Louisiana Workforce Solutions assisted the Iberia Probations and Parole by allowing applicants to sign up online, assisting them with their resumes and entering them into their workforce database.

A New Chapter PUSH and Iberia Probation and Parole offered school supplies to clients and job fair applicants. Each bag contained $40 worth of supplies. Each officer at office pitched in money and Mestayer approached multiple businesses for donations.

They plan to send the extra 58 bags of supplies to different schools around the Parish including Jeanerette High School, Anderson Middle, Iberia Middle School, and Johnston-Hopkins Elementary. Several members of A New Chapter PUSH including Reverend Wilfred Johnson and Donovan Davis provided support to the applicants.

When the COVID pandemic started, the state transitioned the probation and parole operations online. Jeri Mestayer, Probation and Parole Re-entry Program manager recounted days with a consistently full parking lot, but they barely see two or three cars a day now. This job fair brought the most traffic the office saw in a while.

“That’s the busiest I’ve seen our parking lot,” Mestayer said.

It wasn’t the first time the Louisiana Workforce Solutions offered employment opportunities at the Iberia Probation and Parole office, but they never saw this much engagement. Mestayer believed the inclusion of the supply giveaway, TRIO, PMI and A New Chapter Push brought more people out to find assistance.

“This was the most active I’ve seen the workforce van,” Mestayer said.

Mestayer assembled several advertisements for the various organizations and businesses offering support or employment to the formerly incarcerated. Those ads ran all day in the Probation and Parole office.

Mestayer lined the walls of the office with informational resources for different support organizations and hiring companies like Keys Outpatient, which tackles substance abuse and mental health. She also hung brochures of treatment options for a variety of topics from religion to substance abuse.

The following people/companies helped to make this project happen: New Iberia District Probation & Parole Staff, Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office, Judge Hamilton, A New Chapter PUSH, New York Life, Southern Sass Salon, Keys Outpatient Behavioral Health Clinic, Patriot Rehab Services, and several members of the community.

By the event’s end, they’d given away 27 backpacks in addition to the 32 bags given away Aug. 3. PMI conducted 15 interviews and offered seven jobs. Louisiana Workforce Commission helped 16 people create applications.