CHARLOTTE — April is second chance month and a program in Charlotte is focused on helping formerly incarcerated people reacclimate to life after lockup.
Channel 9′s Eli Brand spoke to a man who said the NCIA’s Herbert J. Hoelter Vocational Training Center (VTC) kept him from giving up on himself.
“I didn’t think I would really be here,” Dejuanta Brown said.
Brown got out of jail in 2022. He said he was stuck and resorted to asking his parole officer what he could do to get a job.
It was a question that changed the trajectory of his life.
“It was unbelievable because at one point, like I said, I didn’t have an actual path. I didn’t have a plan I didn’t have any of that,” Brown said.
The answer he got pointed him to the NCIA’s VTC in South End.
Formerly incarcerated people – people struggling with addiction and people experiencing homelessness – can get training in automotives, HVAC, and commercial driving. All in an effort to give them a path back and forward.
Brown himself said in just a few years he went from being in jail, to being employed in an auto shop and owning his own mobile mechanic service.
Channel 9 visited the auto shop where he learned and where others learn now. Getting hands-on training to get certification for jobs that make between $20 and $31 an hour.
Christine Poltawsky is the program director and said giving people in crisis a lifeline is essential.
“Getting out of incarceration, depending on how long you have been in there, you’re releasing to a community that may not look the same. There may be technologies out that weren’t available when you went in…you need housing you need an income,” Poltawsky said.
Around 150 people go through the program in Charlotte every year.
Poltawsky said federal funding cuts are making it more difficult to continue but they’re working to keep services going.
For Brown, the services need to stick around.
“Working in general has kept me out of a lot of trouble. Which was what brought me to the program,” Brown said.
On average, the HVAC and auto programs take 17 weeks to complete. It can take up to 10 weeks to complete the commercial driving course.
Click here to find out how to sign up or donate.
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