Volunteer Attorney Mentors Partner with San Diego Job Readiness Training Program to Reduce Recidivism


SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA -- VIP Mentor is partnering with Second Chance resulting in the largest STRIVE graduating class of 63 men, women and youth looking for a better life. San Diego Second Chance operates the internationally recognized Support and Training Result in Valuable Employees (STRIVE) program, which has historically placed 80 percent of its graduates (homeless, indigent and formally incarcerated) in jobs, most of them paying well above the minimum wage. Among its ex-offender graduates, fewer than 30 percent recommit crimes and return to prison within two years. That's significantly lower than the statewide recidivism rate of 70 percent.

This June three-week class will culminate in a special graduation ceremony June 22 with San Diego Councilmember Kevin Faulconer, Beryl Rayford (San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders' office) to present official certificates from Mayor Sanders, and members of VIP Mentors.

VIP Mentors is a unique mentoring program founded in 1972, which combines the humanitarian goal of repairing lives with the social and economic goal of building better and safer communities. VIP recruits attorneys to mentor young men and women on parole from prisons and youth correctional facilities. VIP mentors maintain weekly contact and spend between three to five hours a month on activities of mutual interest. For more information, please visit www.vipmentors.org, call 1-877-4VIP-INC or email to vip-statewide@vipmentors.org

Second Chance is a non-profit agency in San Diego established in 1993 to help the homeless and chronically unemployed with jobs, housing and life skills. The agency has developed a national reputation in the field of workforce development, with a focus on the hardest-to-serve unemployed/underemployed population. It is the only agency in San Diego to operate the nationally-recognized STRIVE job readiness program, which creates unmatched outcomes of success in helping the chronically unemployed and homeless to secure jobs and establish self-sufficiency. For more information on Second Chance, please visit www.secondchanceprogram.org or call 619-234-8888.