After nine years of criminal activity, Antonio Bobo decided to leave that life and go straight.
“You just get tired of selling drugs, being shot at, being robbed and robbing people,” said Bobo, a former star athlete at Vashon High School.
Thanks to a community partnership led by Area Resources for Community and Human Services (ARCHS) formed to help move ex-offenders from prison to the workforce, Bobo is working legally for one of the first times in his life n even after his incarceration.
He is grateful for the job that he landed at Midas as a technician two months ago.
“I’m blessed,” Bobo said.
St. Louis is home to more than 22,500 ex-offenders. Initiated last year by a $1.9 million U.S. Labor Department grant, ARCHS teamed with 18 community partners (including businesses, the justice system, faith-based organizations, and community groups) to provide ex-offender support.
They are coming back to the same challenges faced prior to incarceration, including poverty, high unemployment and crime, said Wendell Kimbrough, CEO of ARCHS. But the partnership, now almost in its second year, is making a difference.
In the first year of the reentry program, 640 ex-offenders have been served, surpassing the goal of 488. With the help of reentry partners, such as Rankin Technical Training, more than 350 of those have been placed in jobs with living wages.
Studies have shown that unemployed ex-offenders are three times more likely to return to prison than those who land jobs.
“Everyone deserves a second chance,” said Lisa Henderson, service manager of Midas Auto Service, whose company hires ARCHS’ reentry participants. All she asks is that they come to work, do the job and meet the minimum requirements to be a general service technician.
Prior to prison, Bobo was a former star basketball player at Vashon High School who had signed with Oklahoma University, but never played.
He said he started selling drugs at first to pay his tuition, but then quickly got sucked into the quick money and fast lifestyle.
“When you’re on the streets, time really passes you by,” said Bobo, who had gotten shot twice in the legs. “I was so attracted to the lifestyle that when I looked up, I had a federal case and it was too late for me to go back to school.”
A drug conviction landed him 36 months in federal prison.
Bobo said he was on the Internet every day applying for jobs from fast food to warehouse work after his release nearly two years ago. But he had been turned down time and time again.
“Basically, I was just trying to find any job that would keep me away from the streets,” Bobo said.
ARCHS gave him the push he needed. He took a training class on basic automotive through the ARCHS program. Training is also offered in catering, computers, manufacturing, construction, carpentry, customer service, nursing and culinary arts.
Some of the courses in the ARCHS program, such as the culinary arts course at St. Louis Community College, include college credit.
In addition to job training, ARCHS helps in finding housing, drug and mental health counseling, social support, transportation, education and employment.
Most of ARCHS initial funding came from a Department of Labor grant, but once the grant ended in September ARCHS was responsible for sustaining funding on its own.
“We’re going to continue to deliver services in some shape of form,” Kimbrough said. “It is too much of a successful program to be discontinued.”
About six weeks into the job, Henderson is pleased with Bobo’s efforts.
She was first unsure about hiring an ex-offender but Bob and ARCHS have made quite an impression. She said the program calls regularly to check on him.
“He just comes in, does the job,” Henderson said of Bobo. “He’s actually happy to come to work unlike most people who work here,”
Bobo was released from federal prison in December 2006, and he hasn’t looked back since. He is strengthening his relationship with God, his fiancée and three stepchildren.
“I don’t have to worry about any police, I just worry about walking with Christ now,” Bobo said.
For more information, call 314-534-0022 or visit www.stlarchs.org.
