About 10 years ago, Jacksonville native James Coleman attended a CareerSource Northeast Florida (CareerSource NEFL) Employer Workshop and became a graduate of the program.
Since that time, Coleman has helped hundreds of local residents, especially youth living in the city’s most economically-challenged areas, receive the training necessary to receive credentials and find good-paying jobs in Northeast Florida.
Coleman’s hard work culminated recently in a $100,000 grant awarded to his company, Workforce Industrial Training LLC (WIT), through the City of Jacksonville’s Operation Boost Program. The city partnered with both WIT and the Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) to provide the free training program as part of the city’s strategy to crack down on crime – with the program targeting people released from jail, homeless veterans, and those living in low-income areas of Jacksonville.
“Our goal is to involve those individuals of lower income, underemployed, unemployed, and the homeless, including homeless vets, and target the areas that have the highest concentration of crime and violence,” Coleman said.
Coleman, who was raised in the Durkeeville area of Jacksonville, is a former U.S. Army Paratrooper and Nuclear Chemical and Biological Specialist. After leaving the U.S. Army, Coleman put his experience to work in Jacksonville – becoming the first African American program director at the Commercial Diving Academy (CDA). It was there while providing training as an instructor for CDA Technical Institute’s Maritime Welding Program that he came up with the idea to build a training concept for the Durkeeville area.
“Ideally, I wanted to find a way to create a program specifically for a community in need,” he said. “That led me to find the additional resources and knowledge to take that next step, which is when the great connection with CareerSource Northeast Florida came into play.”
According to CareerSource NEFL Business and Community Partnership Manager Jerry Box, the agency’s employer workshops were exactly what Coleman needed at the time.
“We focus on how to run a business, how to become part of the Jacksonville Small Emerging Business (JSEB) Program, how to go after contracting, and there’s also a lot of networking opportunities to meet others going through the same process,” Box said. It’s all about helping small business owners go after contracts with our local municipal authorities like the Jacksonville Transportation Agency, JAXPORT, and the Duval County School Board – they are all required to have 20 percent of their contracts go to small, emerging businesses.”
When Coleman started providing training for the JSEB Program, initially working with young people trying to get into the construction field, Box said CareerSource NEFL started referring youth living in affected areas for training.
From there, Coleman began applying for grants to continue providing these training services – and CareerSource NEFL assisted him in many of those efforts. Coleman became an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Authorized Trainer, Disaster Site and Safety Trainer and ended up developing his first training manual – which is now used by Florida State College of Jacksonville for their Pathway to Work Program. Coleman also became the Clara White Mission’s training director, giving him additional platforms to offer training programs.
Coleman is proud of his accomplishments so far.
“If you look at the totality of the program, we have 90 percent enrollment, 80 percent completion, and 70 to 75 percent employment among those who engage with WIT,” he said. “The program is working, so much so that the City of Jacksonville blessed us with a grant so we can help more people in need make that transition to the workforce.”
Today, most of the training takes place at Coleman’s Workforce Industrial Training Center on 2005 Dahlia Rd., just off Edgewood Avenue in Jacksonville.
“We’re gearing our efforts toward individuals who will receive curriculum-based training so they can receive OSHA and National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) credentials,” Coleman said. “The pre-training makes the job seeker more valuable for the employers, and for those job seekers who may have problematic work or criminal backgrounds, certification can help them overcome those challenges to get hired.”