Ex-offenders need employment certificates to get work after jail

YOUNGSTOWN

Anthony Sims, 34, spent his Saturday morning at the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership office in order to file a petition for a Certification for Qualification of Employment. Sims has been an ex-offender since he was arrested and convicted of burglary at 18 in 2001. He served his sentence, but said his record never left him when he tried to rise above it.

“I just want to be able to get a job without being discriminated against,” he said. “They say you don’t get punished twice, but that’s a lie.”

Sims said he has not been arrested for any other crime and has been job-hunting for months. Ex-offenders like Sims who want to find employment or even housing come to the partnership’s clinic the last Saturday of every month to try to obtain a CQE to have more opportunities for work. But the clinic, hosted by Community Initiative to Reduce Violence, Home for Good Re-Entry Resource Referral Center and MYCAP, is greatly understaffed.

Read more about the program in Sunday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com