Georgia Center for Opportunity’s Hiring Well, Doing Good (HWDG) initiative is quickly gaining ground in Columbus, Georgia. Here’s a brief Q&A from the front lines with HWDG Program Manager Kristin Barker.

Q: What’s the goal of HWDG in Columbus?

Kristin: The HWDG effort is a mission to identify, train, and equip the chronically un- and under-employed for the workforce, thereby impacting the ecosystem in Columbus and Phenix City by reducing poverty, increasing self-sufficiency, and building a stronger workforce.

Q: When we’re successful in Columbus, what will that look like? What outcomes?

Kristin: Workers will be reengaged and prepared to add value to businesses and to continue advancing toward an income level that allows them to flourish.

Employers and nonprofit organizations will be drawn into the same space and conversation. Education will allow these groups to speak the same language and share common goals.

A shared vision is another goal. All entities that touch those who struggle with poverty will connect in a new way that opens up needed opportunities that haven’t existed before. The ultimate goal for all will become generating meaningful work and self-sufficiency for those currently living in poverty.

Q: What’s the jobs situation like in Columbus right now?

Kristin: It’s going well right now. In general, Columbus tends to lag a little behind other areas of the country. When we do have a recession, we may not see it as immediately. I do have contacts in certain industries who tell me they don’t have many entry level jobs, but they do have job needs in a specific area that require targeted training. Figuring out how to align these targeted needs with talent development will be a critical piece to address.

Above all, employers say they need motivated employees who are willing to work and care and are self-motivated.

Q: Share some of the partners you’re working with in Columbus. What makes these relationships so effective and special?

Kristin: HWDG is part of a larger movement in Columbus that’s super exciting. We’re able to tap into a lot of existing support and networks to help people find jobs. Many of the existing efforts currently exist in isolation. We’re working with these other groups to bring a more connected experience to low-income families and, specifically, underemployed job seekers.

Columbus 2025 began a few years back. It was initiated after a Chamber of Commerce inter-city leadership trip.

One action area of Columbus 2025 is called Talented, Educated People. It’s all about aligning education and workforce development and increasing the overall talent pool available in Columbus. A large part of the focus up until this year has been on the skilled workforce—how to best align with the school system.

It was leaving out what HWDG was doing—reengaging those not currently engaged in the workforce. We are being adopted into Columbus 2025 as part of the reengagement arm. They saw our value add there.

This is our first year of figuring out how we connect into that.

Another component group, start up this year, is the Chattahoochee Valley Poverty Reduction Coalition. It specifically pulls together resource providers and other community leaders into a working group to reduce barriers. The initial focus is on families who have kids under the age of 5, helping to move them toward self-sufficiency.

We’re gathering data and addressing priority issues together.

HWDG will be involved with the employment component. We are also an advocate for a common family intake form and online community portal that can be used across programs serving our target families.

Another important group we’re able to work with is Mayor’s Commission on Reentry. The purpose of the Mayor’s Commission on Reentry is to coordinate local efforts to support adults exiting local and state incarceration facilities in Columbus and statewide that will be released to a Muscogee County residency.

This is an important piece.

The day that Tony Kitchens was released from prison in 1985, he did an unusual thing: He got down on the ground and created a fake “snow angel” on the grass.

“I was elated, but nervous. Free, but I didn’t know anything. The sun was very bright. Red was very red, green was very green,” Tony recalls.

Tony faced significant struggles early in his life. He grew up in segregation-era rural Georgia and Atlanta, in neighborhoods riddled with drugs and crime. His dad was an alcoholic and abused his mom.

Tony was incarcerated as a teenager for 12 years. After his release in 1985, he knew he had a choice to make—follow a path that would lead him back to prison, or make the hard choices that would provide him with a future.

For Tony, the choice was simple: “I knew one thing: Even if I had to sleep in a gutter, I wasn’t going back to prison.”

That’s not to say the road wasn’t challenging. Far from it, in fact.

Digging out after incarceration

At the time, Tony had no job, no formal training, and no education. He didn’t know how to communicate appropriately, and he suffered from feeling like an outsider all the time. He looked for a job, but his criminal record was a huge roadblock.

The big difference came when an employer took a chance on Tony and hired him at a service station pumping gas. The pay was just $5 an hour, and his commute was two hours by bus. But Tony didn’t mind—he was moving forward.

“I was always grateful for the small things, because I know what it was like to have nothing at all. I don’t complain about jobs,” says Tony.

A life transformed

Soon, Tony began to climb the economic ladder, pursuing an education and eventually earning a bachelor’s degree. Another monumental change came in his life when he married and had his son.

“Up to then, I would smoke two packs of cigarettes today. I decided to quit then and there and focus my life on someone other than myself,” Tony says. “That’s when I came to realize the more I focused on other people, the better I felt. I began to understand that everything wasn’t about me.”

Today, Tony has dedicated his life to helping other men and women, just like him, transition to a fulfilling life after prison. He is Field Director for Georgia for Prison Fellowship, and formerly served as a Prison In-Reach Specialist for the Georgia government.

And we’re thrilled to report that Tony recently joined our board of directors here at the Georgia Center for Opportunity.

From prisoner to influencer. And the key driver was a job.

Celebrating work

We’re celebrating the life-transforming power of work all during the month of October. Our groundbreaking, community-driven program Hiring Well, Doing Good offers a unique solution to chronic unemployment across Georgia. Learn more.

As Tony often shares, “I keep all my possibilities on my windshield and my prison experience in the rearview mirror. If you’re always looking in the rearview mirror, you’re going to run into something. In the end, I know that if my prison experience didn’t kill me then, no matter what I face today, I know it won’t kill me.”