Program Lists Hope as No. 1 Ingredient

Greg Darwin lived on the streets for more than four years after his car dealership went bankrupt, his wife divorced him and he broke his back when he fell off a truck.

“There were a lot of things that came down on my life that I couldn’t handle at the time,” said Darwin, a recovering alcoholic. “I just wanted to escape from reality.”

Darwin lived out of his truck, traveling from city to city, until the vehicle was stolen in Oceanside and he had nothing left but the jeans he was wearing.

“At that point, I lacked self-esteem and the ability to want to do things,” he said.

On Tuesday, Darwin and three other homeless men graduated from a six-week training program that taught them skills in a field where workers are always needed: cooking.

“This program built my self-esteem up, just knowing that I can do something,” said Darwin, a 42-year-old former house painter who now has four job offers and an apartment.

Over the past year, 60 homeless people have graduated from the training program, which is run by Escondido-based North County Interfaith Council in conjunction with Palomar College. It is funded by the San Diego Consortium and Private Industry Council.

Getting through the program isn’t always easy since many homeless people are not used to operating in a structured environment, said Mia McClellan, job training manager at the Interfaith Council.

But for those who make it through, the program offers success--with 80% of graduates employed as cooks and all of them still in permanent housing, McClellan said.

Thanks to its success, the program has a renewed contract with the Private Industry Council and will expand in June from 10 students per class to 15.

The Interfaith Council runs the training program along with a 10-bed shelter, a combination unique in the county and one necessary to make the program work, McClellan said.

“When someone is homeless, they can’t live on the streets and realistically succeed in a training program,” she said. “Our whole goal here is not to give handouts but to provide the resources and the information that’s necessary for them to get back on their feet.”

“You can’t live off of working at Burger King or McDonald’s, so we try to get them a job and have a skill that they can at least live off of,” McClellan said.

The courses include two classes a week with a cooking teacher at Palomar College and 30 hours a week of hands-on training at local nonprofit kitchens at hospitals and convalescent homes. Participants are also taught interviewing skills, how to write resumes and fill out applications, and how to set goals.

“We have a very tough screening process,” McClellan said. “We look for good motivation and good attitudes and a strong desire to make major lifestyle changes.”

“We have people who have been incarcerated and they’ve done different things in their life. Some of them have just hit bottom and that’s all that there is to it. They’ve just hit rock bottom and they can’t hit lower than that.”

McClellan said she believes that once people are back on their feet, inertia will carry them forward.

“Once someone starts on the streets, it’s much harder for them to get back on their feet and start some foundations. We try to get people their self-esteem and dignity back by giving them permanent housing and job skills,” she said. “If they take care of their basic needs, then they can start on other things.”

Not all those who join the program make it to graduation. Only 4 of the 9 people who started the most recent class graduated, a low rate compared with the previous class, where 10 out of 12 graduated.

And not all of those who are accepted into the program are ready to be placed in a work environment.

“We’ve had some that are real super,” said John Garrison, an assistant director at Palomar Hospital, which has participated in the program for more than six months by offering on-site training. “But we’ve also had some that were absolute disasters.”

“I think it’s a very worthwhile program and they’ve done a lot for the community, and we support their efforts 100%,” Garrison said. “We give them the training and they give us the hours.”

J. D. Dodds hopes that training will eventually land him a job that will allow him to travel, such as a cook on a cruise ship. Until now, that was an unrealistic dream of a homeless man.

“When you’re applying for a job and you don’t have an address or a phone number, employers look at you like you’re crazy,” Dodds said.

“The first time I came here for breakfast, I felt guilty and ashamed. I decided then to make a change and ask for help. We were lucky that this was here.”