YOUNGSTOWN Hands-on experience pays off

A new program is teaching job skills to help area residents succeed in the work force.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Alice Lee carefully brushes white paint under a window.
Her instructor watches closely, and, pleased with the work, slaps Lee on the back.
"You got it, Alice," Kathleen Olson says enthusiastically. "Now, you go, girl!"
Lee smiles and continues painting around the window at Canaan Missionary Baptist Church, 923 Shehy St., on the city's East Side.
Olson moves on, shouting some instructions to students who are on scaffolding, painting the ceiling.
Lee is one of 24 people participating in Learning Carpentry and Painting, a new job training program put together by Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services.
Lee said she entered the program because she likes to paint around her house.
She said she is surprised at how much she has learned about painting a large building and how helpful the instructors, Olson and carpenter Connie Corbett, have been.
"Anybody can paint, but there really are a lot more things you have to do," said Lee, 45, of Youngstown.
She said she hopes to become a union painter.
Program's goal: The job training program's goal is to give people the skills needed to enter union apprenticeship programs in painting or carpentry, said Artis Gillam, owner of A. Gillam & amp; Associates, a Youngstown general contractor. Some of the trainees already are talking about forming their own company, however, he said.
Gillam started planning the program with the county last year because he saw many people who didn't have the skills necessary to get a job in construction. The first six-month training program began last month.
Sara Scudier, assistant director of the county department, said the state has given each county the ability to create its own programs to help people move from welfare rolls to work.
New welfare laws allow people to receive cash payments for a maximum of three years. They then have to take two years off before they can become eligible for their final two years of benefits.
Numbers have dropped: The county had 4,800 people receiving cash payments four years ago, but has less than 2,000 today, Scudier said.
Most of those receiving benefits are children who are living with grandparents, she said.
The county used a federal grant to award Gillam's company a $300,000 contract to train 100 people. The program has a board of directors which includes business leaders, union leaders and school leaders.
Scudier said the county's only other job training program works with people who are disabled.
During the first six weeks of the program, trainees attend a one-hour class on life skills taught by Youngstown Area Urban League instructors. Skills that are taught include being organized, being on time and how to communicate with a boss.
Trainees then attended daily classes on painting and carpentry.
Putting skills to work: After those six weeks, trainees begin working on a job site. For now, the work is being done at churches. The program provides the labor free of charge and the churches provide the supplies.
Skills being taught include roofing, painting and how to install windows and doors. Trainees receive $50 a week when they complete the program.
Olson, 26, said she has been a union painter for seven years and this is the best training program she has seen.
The trainees are eager to learn and work and a lot has been accomplished, she said.
"Take a look around. I'm amazed," said Olson, who used to be a painting instructor in West Virginia for the federal Job Corps program.
The program not only is helping the trainees but it also is helping to repair buildings in the city, she said.