Central Minnesota Jobs and Training Services is building a program to reduce recidivism in McLeod County.
“We’re working with the McLeod County Jail ... and we’re putting together programming to help ‘skill up’ incarcerated individuals, provide them navigation services, mentorship until they release,” CMJTS Chief Executive Officer Barbara Chafee told McLeod County Board members this past week. “Then we’ll work with them upon release to help them with their job search goals so we can try to reduce recidivism here in McLeod County.”
Money for the program was provided by a Pathways to Prosperity Grant from the Department of Employment and Economic Development. It will receive $75,000 in 2022 and 2023.
Chafee and other CMJTS employees spoke with the McLeod County Board while delivering an annual report.
McLeod County is one of 11 counties in central and north central Minnesota on CMJTS’s joint powers board. CMJTS maintains specialized centers, and one-stop CareerForce centers in the region, including one in Hutchinson and one in Litchfield.
The annual report Chaffee shared showed no material weaknesses, no financial deficiencies and no noncompliance found during an audit.
“We had another perfect audit for the 16 years in a row, which is almost unheard of in a nonprofit,” she said.
When residents seek services from the county, they are referred to CMJTS. Specialists help residents gain skills, and use programs to support and reward work, and aid service recipients who want to be self-sufficient. Programs are geared toward youth, at risk youth, adults, dislocated workers and businesses.
CMJTS’s SNAP program helps SNAP participants gain skills, training and work experience. It also serves as the county’s job service for refugees in Minnesota’s assistance program.
Employment specialist Corey Roskmap shared the story of Wil Carranza, who came to CMJTS as part of a refugee program and gained a referral for English language learning while waiting for documentation and seeking help in a job search.
“He was very eager to want to learn English. We’re located in Ridgewater College,” Roskmap said. “I walked him down the hallway to adult basic (education), introduced him. They have a Spanish-speaking teacher. … That day he sat down and started learning English.”
Carranza is now employed at Millerbernd Manufacturing.
