Chicago Transit Authority Expands Second Chance Program

Lee Edwards | As of Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Jakeisha Beals, a graduate of Chicago Transit Authority's (CTA) Second Chance Program, was tearful as she explained how the program changed her life for the better.
Jakeisha Beals, a graduate of Chicago Transit Authority's (CTA) Second Chance Program, was tearful as she explained how the program changed her life for the better.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Congressman Bobby Rush (Dist.-1st) and Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) President Forrest Claypool announced the expansion of CTA’s Second Chance program, which provides career opportunities and job training for non-violent ex-offenders, victims of abuse, and others who need assistance while re-entering the workforce.

The announcement was held at the at the 74th Street CTA Garage in Chicago, 1815 W. 74th St., on Friday.

“If you do not want an ex-offender to be a repeat offender they need to have a job, it’s that simple,” said Emanuel. “By providing specialized training for skills that are in demand, we will keep jobs in our neighborhoods while keeping more of our residents on the pathway to a career and a middle-class life for themselves and their families.”

CTA restored The Second Chance program and quadrupled the number of participants to 265. Program participants are responsible for the cleanliness of CTA’s entire bus and rail car fleet. To date, over 500 people have participated and graduated from the program with 113 hired as full time employees; seven new hires were promoted to manager-level positions.

“CTA’s Second Chance program provides invaluable work experience for individuals who face significant hurdles to employment,” said Claypool. “It is gratifying as president of the CTA and as a Chicagoan to be able to accomplish so much good with this program [while] also making service better for our customers at the same time.”

In addition to The Second Chance Program, CTA has added more than 1,000 union jobs, a 10% increase, according to Claypool.

“Mayor [Emanuel], those trainees who are going through The Second Chance program are indeed the beneficiaries of your vision and hard work and I want to congratulate you on the expansion of The Second Chance program and I am very, very excited to see it growing more into a robust asset,” said Rush. “CTA used to stand for the Chicago Transit Authority but now it’s going to be known as the Chicago Transition Authority.”

The CTA partners with several nonprofit agencies who pre-screen candidates and provide job readiness instruction, to select participants for the Second Chance program.

Jakeisha Beals, an ex-offender due to drug related charges, began the program in June 2012 and was hired as a full time rail care servicer in November 2013. In February 2014, Beals was promoted to her current position of Rail Career Appearance Coordinator.

“This is a wonderful program; this program changed my life tremendously,” said Beals. “It wasn’t until six months in that I realized this is where I want to be in life, this is what I want to do and the CTA has provided me a way to do that by giving me a second chance. This program worked through me, I allowed this program to work through me.”

Beals told the Chicago Citizen Newspaper that moving forward, she would like to work more hands-on with the program and hopes to retire at CTA.

Beginning in April, The Second Chance program will provide comprehensive diesel mechanics training. Diesel mechanics is a growing field in the transportation industry including within the CTA according to Claypool. CTA employs nearly 400 bus mechanics, however, the agency currently has more than 30 vacant positions and taking into account retirement/turnover, means vacancies will increase.

The CTA Second Chance Program is an initiative offered in conjunction with the City of Chicago and social service agencies throughout the city. Working closely with the Department of Family and Support Services, hard-to-place individuals are given an opportunity to obtain full-time employment and training which may enable a start of a long-term, meaningful career.

For more information visit http://www.transitchicago.com/careers/.

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