Mr. Jason Loyola
The Present:
Today, I am a member of the Local #189 Plumbers & Pipe Fitters. I am gainfully employed full-time with a local contractor and I earn $15.30 an hour as a first year apprentice. In seven to ten years I will become a Master Pipe Fitter. I am very fortunate to still have options for my career choice. An interaction with the Vocational Training & Certification Program (VTAC) provided the opportunity for me to not only reconnect with my dream but re–purpose myself.
The Past:
I was in full pursuit of my dream. From 2007- 2011 I was with the Local #18. The Local #18 is a progressive diversified trade union representing Operating Engineers who work as heavy equipment operators, mechanics and surveyors in the construction industry, and Stationary Engineers who work in operations and maintenance building and industrial complexes. Sometime during 2011, I was accepted into the Local #189 Plumbers and Pipe Fitters as an Apprentice the first step in becoming a Master Pipe Fitter. The journey takes seven to ten years and requires extensive training and ultimately passing a state licensing and certification exam. I will have the opportunity to be my own boss, earn a comfortable salary, determine my own work schedule and eventually run my own company. My life was on the right track when one night I made the mistake of a life time. The end result was incarceration.
The Pain:
I would spend the next 5 years in Pickaway Correctional Institute as a first time felon surrounded by seasoned inmates in a foreign community that I would call home. I adapted. I still remember losing my identity as my name became a number and a nickname replaced what my mother called me. I had five years to get to know myself. The future that I planned never included incarceration. I was lost.
The Process:
I believe that you leave incarceration in one of two conditions. You are either resentful or repented. Upon my release I tried to do it on my own. As a first time felon, I thought that I had an edge over other ex-offenders who may have had more interaction with the justice system but I found that I was no different. I had the same barriers as everyone else who had served the time but still found themselves behind bars. Barred from employment, barred from acceptance, barred from the opportunity to have a decent life. I tried the Re- Entry Work Readiness program one – week after I got out of prison because I realized that I needed help.
I wasn’t aware that I was what you call “institutionalized” meaning that I was suffering from the psychological effects of having been in an institution for an extended period of time. Unbeknownst to me I’d taken the mindset and social skills from prison back to the community and I was angry. The Re- Entry Work Readiness Program related to my human experience and addressed my emotions in a manner that I could accept what happened to me and be released from it as well.
The Progress:
After promotion from the Re-Entry program I became determined to be a better person, a better son and to get back into the Local #189 and finish what I started. Employment Plus lead me to VTAC. Getting reacquainted with tools and matching skills with my abilities was energizing. While in VTAC I had the opportunity to attend a job fair with union representatives and my heart leaped. This was my first real chance to touch bases with my dream. I spoke with a Union Rep. about apprenticeship programs. Because of this conversation I researched what I needed to do to get back into the union. When I found out that the time had elapsed on my testing and certifications which meant that I would have to start over again, this could have been discouraging but it wasn’t. When you become hungry and thirsty for the life you desire to have you will work day and night for it. I’m about that life. After VTAC I landed a job at Worthington Steel making $13.80 an hour on 3rd shift. I stabilized my housing, finances and transportation and became a trusted employee. Still with my goal in sight, I scheduled and passed my union placement and aptitude test. One of my favorite quotes is a line from the Fugees song Ready or Not. It says, “I’m a born again hooligan only to be king again.” I feel like I climbed a mountain and I finally reached the top. To be able to stand and appreciate being back at one, a new start in the same place but I am a different man. I now know who I am. I am a man that overcame barriers, that fought his way out of his circumstance and a man that his mother can respect and recognize as her son. This is an incredible feeling. Now that I’ve made it to this point, I can truly leave my past behind and live in my future.
The Partnership:
The Vocational Training & Certification Program (VTAC) is a partnership between IMPACT Community Action, the National Skilled Trades Network and the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. VTAC career certification is closing the gap to self–sufficiency by leading to higher wage or livable wage employment opportunities.