A Second Chance : Job Training Program Helps the Down, Out and Hopeful

Epigmenio “Hoppy” Aguayo lost his job, his wife and his home in the span of a year, but he never lost hope.

Tony Estrada, an ex-convict who was released last year after a five-year prison term, watched as potential employers rejected application after application. He vowed to stay patient.

Both men were eventually rewarded with jobs obtained through the Verdugo Private Industry Council, which recognized nine graduates of its training program--including a former welfare recipient, a developmentally disabled youth and several laid-off workers--this week at a reception in Glendale.

In March, 1991, Aguayo was laid off from his job as a truck driver for a Glendale lumber company. Later that year, his wife of 16 years filed for divorce. But the clincher was still to come.

As a result of the divorce settlement, Aguayo was forced out of his home. About six months ago, the 34-year-old Los Angeles man joined the ranks of the homeless, marking time in city parks and a friend’s junked car while searching for a job. Although he was receiving unemployment benefits, much of that money went to his wife for the support of his three children.

The going was rough. He was turned away at crowded homeless shelters and was forced to solicit food handouts from friends, he said.

“It was a struggle,” he said. “I had to beg people just so I could take a shower.”

Jobless for more than a year, despite using the services of two job placement agencies, he had begun to wonder if his luck was ever going to change.

It did, after a childhood friend recommended that he contact the Alliance for Education, a job training program affiliated with the Verdugo Private Industry Council and the city of Glendale.

The Private Industry Council--a coalition of private business, education and local government in Glendale, Burbank and La Canada Flintridge--has helped nearly 5,000 people find jobs since 1984 by offering on-the-job and classroom training, job fairs and placement services, said its chairman, Bill Jacot of California Offset Printers. The $3-million program, which is funded by the federal Job Training Partnership Act, also offers financial incentives to participating employers, who may be reimbursed for up to 50% of the new employees’ gross wages during the training period.

Through the program, Aguayo was matched to a job as a security guard at Pacific Security Systems in Bellflower. About three weeks after losing his home, he began on-the-job training, riding the bus to work. He found a new home in Los Angeles about six weeks later.

Fred Cummings, the general manager of Pacific Security, said Aguayo already has won an outstanding employee award for perfect attendance. “He’s really making an effort to make a go of it,” Cummings said.

Aguayo, who is now a sergeant and supervises five guards, said he never had any doubt that he would find a job and put a roof over his head.

“I’m not a quitter,” he said. “I did what I had to do and I’m proud of myself.”

Estrada, who was serving time at a Chino prison this time last year, also was honored at the reception hosted by Walt Disney Imagineering, one of several companies that participate in the job-training program.

The 42-year-old Eagle Rock man, who declined to say what he was imprisoned for, was released last fall and soon discovered how tough it is for someone with a prison record to find a job.

Although he was willing to accept almost any type of work, the rejections piled up.

“I put in more applications than I ever had before in my life,” he said. “People don’t want to hire someone who has gone through the prison system.”

Despite his desperation to find work, Estrada said he never considered trying to hide his prison background.

“I didn’t want to deceive myself or anybody else,” he said. “I just prayed and asked the Lord for patience.”

With the help of Verdugo Private Industry Council, which subsidizes up to 50% of the employees’ wages during the training period, he found employment in February as a machinist’s helper for Monks Aerospace in Burbank. “They told me that they wanted to give me a chance,” the soft-spoken Estrada said.

“It’s tough enough to find employment for ex-offenders in a good job market, but this is a miracle,’ “said Frank Quintero, director of the Alliance for Education.