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Alan
Brezovsky says he once earned $30,000 in a single day by selling
drugs. Now he earns minimum wage as a street maintenance worker
on Wall Street for the Alliance for Downtown New York. But
he is determined to stay clean, and he is willing to wait
for higher wages until he has earned them.
Brezovsky is one of over 100,000 people who have turned to
a program called Wildcat to get a second chance at building
a successful work history. Founded in 1972 by a group of New
York City business people, Wildcat specializes in vocational
training for New York's "hardcore unemployed" - recovering
drug addicts, released prison inmates, and welfare recipients
who lack necessary job skills.
Wildcat
offers a variety of services, such as attitude coaching, resume
building, and skills training, all of which are designed to
help its participants find and keep full-time jobs. They even
employ a full-time attitude coach.
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John
Stewart, attitude adjustor. PHOTO:
Kate Donovan.
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The
program is selective; Wildcat only accepts people who have
serious obstacles to overcome. "We don't take the easy cases,"
says Wildcat President Amelia Betanzos. "You basically
have to have negative qualifications." Prior to entering
Wildcat, participants must have been on welfare for more than
a year, or they must have been out of jail for less than one
year, according Betanzos. "To get into our high school you
have to have been suspended," she says.
Wildcat
exists to place people in full-time jobs. To begin this process,
the organization often contracts out its participants. Wildcat's
success rate in placing workers in full-time jobs stands at
70 percent.
Brezovsky,
along with fellow ex-convicts George Borges and Devlin Altobelo,
have been hired out as Wildcat contract employees to the Alliance
for Downtown New York. Alliance, a quasi-public organization,
works to keep the Wall Street area clean, safe, and economically
vital.
Alliance
spokesperson Valerie Lewis says that area has improved dramatically
in recent years. She said of the 40 or so Wildcat maintenance
workers who work for Alliance: "Our guys have cleaned all
the graffiti; now, we're 100 percent clean. They've been incredible."
Brezovsky speaks highly of Wildcat and Alliance. Borges says
he likes his job too, but he feels frustrated with the low
pay. A former
drug dealer who once sold $1500 worth of crack in a single
day, Borges now earns $504 every two weeks. If he successfully
completes the Wildcat program, however, his earning power
will increase. "This is just a stepping stone. This is just
to help guys who never worked put something on their resume,"
Borges says.
John
Stewart, Wildcat's motivational coach, helps newly-released
prisoners like Borges re-work their resumes and their lifestyles.
He tells former inmates that their years in crime have given
them all kinds of skills they didn't realize they had.
Stewart
cites one example of a man who had dropped out of school age
13 and who sold drugs until he finally was arrested and imprisoned.
When the man was released from prison at age 30, he feared
he never would find a job. Stewart then helped him to think
about the skills he already possessed: A drug dealer must
understand his clientele, keep flexible hours, and sometimes
engage in international travel. Stewart asked the man to write
out the lessons he had learned running his drug business,
and two days later, he still was writing.
"I
try to give people solutions, and to help people see themselves
from the outside," says Stewart.
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