After spending 30 years in prison, Terry Booker was 60 and facing release, according to the Patrick County Workforce Center.
Booker eventually overcame frustration, but initially, “I sat in jail, making plans and setting goals for what? I have 30 years to pull,” he said.
Ill-prepared for his future, Booker said he attended his share of workshops.
“Going to workshops and classes was good, but no help to me,” he said. “I had to change internally.”
Eventually, “I gave my life to Christ and from that point forward I changed internally and was able to see past the jail bars,” Booker said.
His life lessons continued, and a year before his release date, Booker began a transitional program. At the time, he worked in a restaurant washing dishes.
Booker said he was grateful for the opportunity to earn a wage. His pay was put into a savings account so that when he returned to society, he would have those funds to help him start over.
“It was not a lot of money, but I was thankful” for it, Booker said.
He went to the reentry support program in Patrick County to get started on making a new life. There, he was told by Mandy Foleman with the STEP – Re-entry Program, to see Wanda Whitlow at the Virginia Workforce Center.
“I know with the barriers I have that it is going to be hard to help me, but I need some help. I just want a job,” Booker said when he entered the local Workforce Center.
Whitlow, manager/business service representative, started talking with different businesses about their policies on hiring ex-offenders. She developed a plan and a course of action to figure out the best way to help Booker.
That was difficult for Booker, who said “I had to learn to let people help me.”
Mid-Atlantic Textile Company, LLC agreed to partner with the Workforce Center and hire Booker through an On the Job Training program in which an employer receives a reimbursement through the program for up to 50 percent of the wages paid to the employee for a maximum of six months. The funds are to help offset the costs of training an individual that may not be completely prepared to fulfill all of the job requirements.
For the first time in a long time, Booker said he has a great outlook on his future.
“This job has changed my life,” Booker said. “It is a great place to work, I enjoy what I am doing and I want to grow in this company.”
Booker attributes his success to the invaluable lesson of learning “to let people help me.”
The Patrick County Workforce Center is located at 103 West Blue Ridge Street, Stuart. It can be reached by calling (276) 694-6542.
