What does the Employment & Training team do?
Our team does employment readiness and work history assessments to determine if a client is a good fit for our employment skills workshop.  We look at barriers to employment, what has caused past job’s or career’s to end, as well as education gained and further education or training desired by each individual. Once they have completed our employment skills workshop, they graduate to our job search program where they get one-on-one job search support and job coaching.  We help connect them with interview clothing and haircuts, as well as soft essential skills that complete their transformation into excellent candidates for their goal position. As we transition into our client’s gaining employment, we then support them while on the job for up to 6 months to ensure that they can navigate their work environment and the stresses that come with a part-time or full-time job.

What made you want to work for HealthNet’s Homeless Initiative Program?
My wife worked for a short time partially with HIP and partially with Adult and Child, where they trained clients with mental health and homelessness barriers to enter the hospitality industry.  I volunteered to do some mock interviews and speak to several of their classes.  I connected to those client’s hearts and enjoyed that time more than anything else.  I  had decided in 2012 to take my career a different route and HIP had a Job Development position open. I applied and was lucky enough to be offered the position.

What is the most satisfying part of your job?
Bar none, the opportunity to see a client walk through our doors after they have been offered and accepted a job.

 To learn more about HealthNet’s Homeless Initiative Program, please click here. If you would like to make a donation to HIP, please visit www.indyhealthnet.org/Donate.

HealthNet’s Homeless Initiative Program (HIP) has been serving the homeless population in Marion County since 1988 with Health Care, Street Outreach, Walk-In Triage services, Intensive Case Management, Employment & Training as well as Housing services.  All of our services are available to homeless Veterans, as well as to anyone experiencing homelessness.  In 2013, the Homeless Initiative Program served:

• 2868 clients
• 1193 persons in 361 families with 756 children
• 1668 (60%) single men and (40%) women
• 466  or 16% Veterans
• 438 individuals experiencing Domestic Violence
• 1323 (46% of those served) individuals with a diagnosed disability including substance abuse, mental health diagnosis

HIP is located at 1835 N. Meridian St.in the middle of downtown Indianapolis and is accessible via public transportation.  No appointments are necessary and individuals can come in to seek assistance with challenges that they have as they either work to prevent becoming homeless or redirect themselves from this experience.

Our hours are as follows:

Monday/Tuesday/Thursday: 8am to 4:30pm
Wednesday: 1pm to 4:30pm
Friday: 8am to 11:30am

Employment Assessments: Monday @ 9am OR Thursday @ 1pm

For more information about HealthNet’s Homeless Initiative Program and how you can help, please call 317-957-2275 or visit www.indyhealthnet.org. 

What is the importance of the City County Council’s decision to pass the Ban the Box initiative for those applying to the City of Indianapolis and their vendors?

The 26-2 decision by the City County Council to pass a local Ban the Box initiative potentially has a large impact on those searching for employment in Marion County.  This impact will not be immediately

felt by individuals with criminal histories unless applying to these entities in the near future, but hopes are high that this trickles to private employers to consider those recovering from past mistakes.

With the most recent numbers showing 5,000 individuals exiting from prison per year into Marion County, this is an important victory for those trying to get back on the employment track.  Many ex-offenders have plenty of positive skills to provide to employers but have difficulty getting back into employment and finding employers that are willing to give those with past convictions a second chance.  All that is needed is an opportunity to get their “foot into the door” in order to sell themselves to the employers.  This decision gives hope to those searching for employment that their criminal history may not be an immediate barrier to this process. If they can sell the employer on their skill sets, they can then address the criminal history with an opportunity to explain what they have done since their conviction to choose a different path and learn from their past mistakes.

Employers often tell me that they have some flexibility to consider applicants with criminal history but that the challenge is really preparing those with this barrier on how to provide “proof” that this decision making process is different and that they truly have learned from their mistakes.  This falls on employment professionals within our county to prepare these individuals properly so that they can speak about past poor choices and how that affected their life in a positive manner.

If you have the ability and desire to help those struggling to find employment opportunities or practice building interview skills, please contact Matt Holland at 317-957-2275 for our Mock Interviewing with employment ready individuals that we facilitate every two weeks.  We also are seeking private employers that are interested in providing opportunities to those in our community that are transitioning out of a situation of homelessness back into society in order to be productive members of our community.

For more information about HealthNet’s Homeless Initiative Program, please visit www.indyhealthnet.org.

The Homeless Initiative Program’s Employment and Training department holds Mock Interview sessions for our client’s every 2-3 weeks.  We take our client’s through the process of how to maximize their skills and workplace skills to impress that future employer and “sell the employer” that they are the right candidate.  Having professional Human Resources and/or hiring personnel feedback is a large part of building the belief that they can attain their goal and reach the position they desire.

If you are interested in volunteering some of your time and professional knowledge to benefit those searching for their next employment opportunity and molding them into the best candidate that they can be, please contact Matt Holland, Employer Liaison at the Homeless Initiative Program at 317-957-2275 Ext. 4006 or mholland1@iuhealth.org for more information.

Jeff Smith, Marine Corps Veteran

Jeff Smith served in the Marine Corps during the early ‘80s, earning a deployment ribbon and an honorable discharge.  But after the Corps, Jeff fell on hard times.  Alcohol became an addiction—one that destroyed his personal life and nearly destroyed him.  He couldn’t hold a steady job because of the addiction, so he was hustling from day to day just to keep going.

Then he made a bad decision that greatly accelerated a downward slide: He signed a check he had no business signing—just to get some money to eat and pay for some shelter. That act of desperation earned him a felony conviction for forgery in 2007.

Jeff admits today that his arrest was the wake-up call he needed. It forced him to take a hard look at himself and see how far his life had unraveled. Unless he made some different choices immediately, there wouldn’t be anything left to salvage. So Jeff made a Marine’s decision — he faced the truth about his life, his addiction, and his behavior. He asked for help and enrolled into a special substance abuse program for veterans, the R.E.S.T. program (Residential Employment and Substance Abuse Treatment). He stuck with the treatment plan; and by June 2010, he had logged over a year completely free from alcohol. He was proving himself a success—both to himself and to the counselors who worked with him.

Upon achieving this benchmark in his recovery program, Jeff now was authorized to deal with employment issues. And that’s when the Homeless Initiative Program’s HVRP staff met him. Jeff applied to the HVRP career program. After assessment by staff, he was assigned to the HVRP Skills That Work workshop, a weeklong training program that equips HVRP veterans with an eye-catching resume, special job-search and internet computer tools, as well as professional interviewing skills. He completed the workshop, impressing HVRP staff with his commitment and seriousness. Staff found him to be extremely pleasant, humble, and realistic.  Moreover, he wasn’t work shy. He performed every task assigned to him with grace and good humor.

The next step for Jeff was the HVRP Guided Job Search program. For three days each week, he spent several hours in the HVRP Job-Search Room, under the tutelage of staff, working to follow up on job leads. He proved to be responsible and dependable.  So it was with concern and disappointment that staff watched him apply for job after job without a job offer.

He was applying for jobs for which he was qualified, but employers weren’t responding to his applications. HVRP staff suspected that the problem was his recent criminal conviction—the felony forgery conviction from 2007. Most employers require that a felony be at least 5 to 10 years in the past before they will even consider a job application—if they agree to consider it at all. Jeff’s conviction was simply too fresh.

But Jeff was a veteran fighting hard to win his life back. He had proved that. And one of the missions of HVRP is to help veterans like Jeff get that second chance at life. So we took special action. HVRP had developed a relationship with Denison Parking, a local employer that wanted to help veterans. HVRP staff thought that Jeff would be a perfect fit. So HVRP made a special appeal to Denison executives to advocate for Jeff, outlining the successful steps he had taken to change his life. We asked Denison to give Jeff serious consideration for an available maintenance position, despite his criminal history. We also pledged that HVRP would stand with Jeff and would follow up with him after employment to ensure his success.

The recommendation Jeff received from HVRP persuaded Denison Parking to hire him on a trial basis. For three months since, he has earned recognition from Denison as one of its stellar employees. In fact, Denison recently promoted him to a better shift and has entrusted him with greater responsibility. Jeff is grateful for the second chance he’s received, and he’s making the most of it. He is a persuasive example that offering a veteran a second chance simply makes good business sense. And the Homeless Initiative Program’s HVRP staff is pleased to have helped make it happen.

Stories like these happen everyday, but they are not always highlighted because they slip through the cracks.  Help us continue to make these stories happen, Blanket Indy with Care. Our Homeless Initiative Program serves over 2500 homeless individuals in Indianapolis, a simple and quick online donation can go a long way.

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