On June 4, San Quentin’s Prison to Employment Connection Program held its annual “Employers Day” in Chapel B, which gave participants a chance to test their skills after 12 weeks of instruction.
P2EC is a job preparation program that focuses on teaching residents how to write resumes, learn interview skills, and build confidence before meeting with employers and reentry professionals.
“We need to unlock the full potential of people who have paid their debt and want to contribute to society,” said P2EC Executive Director Sumer Schultz to 36 residents, 26 employers, and a dozen volunteer sponsors in attendance. “It’s not just the right thing to do; it makes economic sense. We need to create pathways to jobs because work is one of the most powerful deterrents to recidivism.”
According to Schultz, P2EC is built on a simple belief that employment is more than a paycheck. It is structure, dignity, responsibility, connection, job search strategies, and about speaking honestly and responsibly about the past while staying focused on the future.
SQRC resident Charles Love, 42, said he took the program in preparation for his release in four months after nine years of incarceration. “I learned how important networking is,” Love said. “I got my résumé tuned up, and the hope is that the people I meet here today might lead me to a job when I get out.”
Throughout the afternoon, P2EC participants smiled, shook hands, and sat face-to-face with potential employers during a barrage of 10 minute job interviews.
“I only had like one real job on the street,” resident Julian Castillo, 26, said while waiting to meet with employers. “I’m here to sharpen my interview skills and build my confidence.”
Resident P2EC facilitator John Levin spoke highly of program graduates and the way they learned the art of how to take the heaviest thing in their lives, their incarceration, and “flip it on its head.”
“You don’t have to hide from it anymore. Instead, you can look a hiring manager in the eye, show them how you used your time to better yourself, to address the root causes that brought you here, and built an unshakable work ethic,” said Levin.
