Jobs and Hope Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Justice Announces Transportation Initiative For People In Recovery

Get Paid to Pay it Forward is part of the Jobs & Hope West Virginia program. The campaign offers a financial incentive to drivers who transport individuals in recovery to substance use treatment.

Gov. Jim Justice announced Wednesday a new initiative for people in recovery from substance use disorder.

Get Paid to Pay it Forward is part of the Jobs & Hope West Virginia program. The campaign offers a financial incentive to drivers who transport individuals in recovery to substance use treatment.

Justice called the drug epidemic “a real problem” that he said could have brought the state to its knees, both economically and socially.

“But Jobs & Hope West Virginia is doing an amazing job and really saving lives,” Justice said. “This is tough stuff, and we need more help, but it’s worth it. The people of West Virginia are worth it.”

Justice said by incentivizing people to step up and promote the program, the state can continue to make strides to equip people in recovery.

Transportation remains one of the biggest barriers for people seeking treatment, particularly in rural areas.

“I said it just a second ago, what’s a life worth? Now we have a program that’s like a modern day Uber service within ourselves,” Justice said. “Thank you, thanks to all of you.”

Justice also talked about a partnership that allows Jobs & Hope participants to enroll in a car donation service where Good News Mountaineer Garage will supply a free vehicle for people in need.

Additionally the program offers participants vehicles to take their driver’s license exam. To date, 34 people have become licensed through the program.

Deborah Harris, lead transition agent at Jobs & Hope WV said the Good News Mountaineer Garage partnership offers two vehicles, one in Charleston, and one in Morgantown for individuals to obtain their driver’s license.

“The Good News Mountaineer Garage has two staff members that will drive to a participant, pick them up, drive them to the regional DMV office and take the driving test in the vehicle and then take them back home,” Harris said.

Landscape Trade Organization Hopes To Bolster Workforce, Provide Training

The West Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association is training hopeful technicians to bolster the industry’s undermanned workforce as part of an initiative with the state’s national guard.

The program, located in Dunbar, trains students in landscaping basics including insect and disease management, pruning and lawn care. Potential workers can receive course certification through the program.

Michael Biafore, chairman of the agency’s workforce development committee, says it’s the first formal training for the career path to happen within the state.

“In West Virginia, the landscape industry, through 2022, grew six percent. And we expect to grow another four percent in the coming years,” Biafore said. “The problem is, that need keeps growing, but there aren’t any employees coming in to answer the call.”

The program was created under the umbrella of the state’s Jobs and Hope program, which helps those recovering from substance use disorder find their future career. Biafore says he’d like to see the program become a consistent pipeline for workers.

“We have turned to people that were maybe disadvantaged for whatever reason, and need a vehicle to come back into society, and earn a living and be productive,” Biafore said.

The program was created in tandem with similar training the association is implementing for students involved in trade school, with a program at Pierpont Community and Technical College last spring semester.

“We’re hoping to do it again this fall, our ultimate goal is to keep building on that and expanding that program,” Biafore said. “So one day, we will get to the level of some of our surrounding states with this curriculum.”

The program’s next training event is scheduled from May 15 to 19. Another program is also tentatively planned for this summer at Camp Dawson in Preston County. Biafore says they’re hoping to organize these training sessions up to four times a year.

Those interested can sign up at the Nursery and Landscape Association’s website.

State Seeks Public Input On Plan To Address Drug Addiction Crisis

A group of state leaders working on a three-year plan to address substance use in West Virginia are traveling the state to share what they’ve come up with, and they say they need help deciding which issues to address first, and how.

“Because we want to get this right,” said Brian Gallagher, chairman of the Governor’s Council on Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment. “If we do this wrong, we run the risk of putting a lot of money, and training and time into solutions that aren’t real solutions, aren’t evidence-based.”

The West Virginia Substance Use Response Plan consists of six areas for improvement, covering everything Gallagher said his group could think of when contemplating ways addiction has negatively affected the state. That includes obvious areas, like prevention and treatment, but it also highlights where substance use disorder is most on display, like the legal system and communities that lack opportunities for employment, while calling for ways communities and their leaders can facilitate more longer-lasting recoveries for residents who are recovering from addiction.

The state aims to complete the plan by Jan. 1, 2020, according to Bob Hansen, executive director of the state’s Office of Drug Control Policy. That way, he said, lawmakers can take over implementation of the plan during the next legislative session, which begins Jan. 8, 2020.

The ODCP was created as a sub-department of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources in 2017 by legislative action. Hansen was appointed by Gov. Jim Justice to lead the office in late 2018, around the same time Justice’s office announced it was creating the aforementioned council on preventing and treating substance abuse.

Hansen said it’s not like the state has been idly standing by since then.

“Oh, there’s been a whole lot of activities,” he said Monday at a public forum at the University of Charleston. His list of actions includes the recently unveiled Jobs and Hope program, which Hansen said has been working with people in recovery since this summer to connect them with meaningful employment, and the state’s quick response team initiative, which equips a team of first responders to handle overdoses.

“[There’s been a] growth in residential treatment, there’s been a growth in outpatient practice, there’s been a growth in peer recovery support,” Hansen said. “We’re doing a lot of things automatically as we grow along. We’re not sitting just waiting to plan, we’re implementing tons of activities that will have a long-term impact for people.”

Hansen, Gallagher and others will be in Martinsburg on Tuesday, at the Berkeley County Sheriff’s office; Wheeling on Wednesday, at the Swint Hall Troy Theater; and Fairmont on Thursday, at the Robert H. Mollohan Research Center. The forums begin a 4:30 p.m.

The public has until Friday, Oct. 25, to share their feedback either in person or online.