Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 3, 1995 TAG: 9508050015
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TONYA WOODS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Three years ago, La Shawn Terry-Johnson, 24, was on welfare and was living in Lincoln Terrace with her three children.
"I was sitting around not doing anything," she said. "I kept saying I'm going to wait for this or I'm going to wait for that before I try to go out and get a job."
After receiving welfare for almost two years, Terry-Johnson did what some people would like to see more welfare recipients do. She realized she had the chance and the ability to work toward something better.
"I was determined to get my kids out of the projects and myself off of welfare," she said. "I found out if you try hard enough, it can be done. You've got to have willpower and just do it."
So she did. Through Opportunity Knocks, Terry-Johnson became a full-time certified nursing assistant at Virginia's Veteran Care Center.
The work program's intent is to educate and improve work ethics, vocational training and volunteer work in men and women who are having a hard time finding a job. People between 18 and 25 years old who have criminal records, receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children or have poverty-level incomes can qualify for Opportunity Knocks.
"We get a significant number of single mothers and soon-to-be fathers in here," said John Clinemyer, Opportunity Knocks director. The program also gets many participants through word-of-mouth advertising. Some have entered the program as referrals from the department of Social Services and from probation officers.
Clinemyer and Napoleon Bailey, crew supervisor, agree: If you expect to goof off instead of working, you need not apply.
"We've had people come in here and be lazy," Bailey said, "but they didn't really want to work in the first place, so they didn't last long."
The jobs are what some may call physically challenging: cleaning tanks at the Water Pollution Control Center; working with the U.S. Forest Service, the Virginia Safety Council, parks and recreation departments in Roanoke, Craig and Botetourt counties; and working with patients at the Adult Care Center.
Participants also can earn a General Equivalency Diploma or a certified nursing assistant license.
If you ride down Patton Avenue in old Gainsboro, you will see Opportunity Knocks' latest completed project. Workers recently put the finishing touches on a sidewalk they helped refurbish.
Participants' workdays begin at 7 a.m. and last until 2 p.m. They can stay in the program for one year, and though the hours aren't full-time, most of the participants are confident they will have full- time jobs by the time they finish the program.
"I'm used to working full time," said Rob Latimer, who's been in the program for about three months. When he moved to Roanoke from New York's South Bronx, he knew he had to have a job. He said he believes the program will provide avenues to a career as an electrician. His main work station so far has been the Water Pollution Control Center.
"The program took me out of a lot of trouble," he said. "I've got a kid on the way, and I figured I just needed to have a steady income coming in so I can get ready for it."
An average of 25 people can be in the program at one time. Nine people currently are in Opportunity Knocks; so far, nearly 120 people have passed through the program. Last year, 15 participants were hired for full-time jobs.
"Considering our situation over the past three years, that's pretty good," Clinemyer said.
Bailey said Opportunity Knocks was the first organization to operate out of the old Transportation Building in Wasena Park after it was flooded in 1985. Since then, the building has been renovated with new light fixtures donated by Craig County and lockers donated by Fishburn Elementary School.
Jerry Pannel, a utility worker at the Water Pollution Control Center, said the people from Opportunity Knocks have been mature, hard workers.
"The ones that stay really want to work," he said. "Some get a whiff of the smell around here, go on break and don't ever come back."
Johnny Taylor II, who got his full-time job at the Water Pollution Control Center through Opportunity Knocks, said if it weren't for the program, he still would be working at temporary jobs in warehouses. Taylor was tired of depending on his grandmother for the things he needed to provide for himself and his 1-year-old son, Jaquar.
"People my age don't want to work for little or no money," he said. "But I've learned that when you start out working, you might not get everything you want at once. But if you stick with it, it'll pay off."
by CNB