March 18, 2025 • 26 mins
Green jobs are booming in the U.S., and in North Port St. Joe, leaders are leveraging workforce training in green jobs to revitalize the local economy. This free 6-week brownfield training program helps residents gain green-collar skills to meet growing demand in the environmental sector.
Resources Mentioned:
Becoming a Clean Slate Community
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dannie [00:00:10]:
And a lot of time there's hurricane damage in parts of the the state where they have to actually bring in people to do a lot of the asbestos removal and other cleanup. So this was an opportunity to actually train someone who might not have a skill and not only being able to help us to address the immediate problems we have in the community, but looking at the fact that this could be a job skill that could possibly turn into a career. (00:00):
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Amanda [00:00:41]: That's the voice of Dannie Bolden, program developer and community liaison for the North Port St. Joe Community Development Corporation. He joins us to share about this small community's free six week brownfield training which equips residents with green collar skills and also creates sustainable job opportunities. Learn more about this podcast at livabilitymedia.com and with. that, let's jump in. Thank you, Dannie, so much for joining us today on Inside America's Best Cities. We're going to talk about some skills training you all are doing in your community related to environmental concerns and how you're tying all that together. So thanks so much for being here. (00:01):
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Dannie [00:01:24]: You're welcome. No problem at all. I'm glad to be here. (00:02):
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Amanda [00:01:29]: Can you kick us off by just telling us a little, some more details about the program, what specific skills that it's teaching and you know, how you selected those depending on needs in the community? (00:03):
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Dannie [00:01:40]: Oh, absolutely. Well, just a brief history in relationship to the community of North Port St. Joe. It is a community that has quite a few environmental injustices in relationship to the community itself. And you know, it was a community that was located next to a paper mill in a chemical plant. And as a result of the community being located so closely to those two industries, the paper company would actually take some of its waste and materials and other debris and put it on a landfill and created a landfill that covered up an underground stream that flowed directly through the community. And so after they filled in that landfill again with the stream flowing underneath it, they sold the property to folks who lived in the community there who built homes on it. And subsequently those homes, the debris started to decay and those homes started sinking because of the stream still flowing underneath it. And so we began to look at how could we address trying to remediate some of the issues relative to the home sinking in the ground. And we went out and applied for EPA grant that would allow us to access some resources to not only be able to understand what the environmental issues were in terms of the soil contamination in the ground sinking and everything, but was there a way that we could actually be able to use this as an opportunity to train people in the community to do the work, to do the cleanup? And so the program is actually one of the grants that we were successful in getting from the EPA. It's called the EPA Jobs Training Grant. And as I said, it was really about trying to train local community members, people who might want to understand how to do environmental cleanup, soil remediation, dealing with asbestos removal, mold removal, understanding the whole educational part about how to be able to go in and be able to help with actually cleaning up the soil as a result of the contamination. But as well as it was a great opportunity for someone to get a skill set because as you know, down in Florida we get a lot of hurricanes and a lot of time there's hurricane damage in parts of the state where they have to actually bring in people to do a lot of the asbestos removal and cleanup. So this was an opportunity to actually train someone who might not have a skill and not only being able to help us to address the immediate problems we have in the community, but looking at the fact that this could be a job skill that could possibly turn into a career where a person could actually be able to use it wherever the need or the emergency might arise. (00:04):
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Amanda [00:04:44]: Yeah, that's helpful backstory and great idea to connect everything up in that way. Once people have completed this program, where would they typically be getting a job or working? Are there local companies that are doing that? (00:05):
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Dannie [00:04:55]: Yes, yes, you're absolutely correct. So we established real close working relationship with one of our larger employees in the community, which is Eastern Shipbuilding Company. And of course, you know, having people, first of all, that have some type of skill sets to be able to, you know, take on some of the jobs that they had was, was something that they were interested in. But they also wanted to support the program because, you know, one of the things we were really also addressing is the unemployment in the community. So you brought a person in who we've had trained and making them available to Eastern Shipbuilding as a trained employee. They know that this person can sit through and learn. They know that this person has a skill set that they brought to brought with them that was very, very useful. And then we were working very closely with what we call Career Source, which is a state funded program that, that actually would actually allow people to, while they're going through a training program, be able to have access to the computer system if they needed to go out and sit in a room and write up a resume, type up a resume, or if they wanted to actually learn more about the subject matter that was being taught in the classroom. And Career Source was also very connected with the other industries that we had in the county as well, and that's with the Department of Corrections, the city of Port St. Joe, and the County. And one of the things that we were really excited about was the director of the city's wastewater treatment program was actually one of the instructors. And so he actually took people in and showed them that whole process of how it worked in terms of how it relates to the environment and everything, but also had indicated that as jobs became available there, that he would be, you know, using some of the people that were actually reaching out with some of the people who went through the jobs training program and providing them with opportunities. And so we just scoured the area, you know, not only in Port St. Joe, Panama City as well, and saying, “hey, look, we've got these trained people. We got some opportunities for them to get additional training, and would you be willing to support the program and hire them once they complete it?” And so we were very successful with that. (00:06):
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Amanda [00:07:20]: So there's a pretty high success rate then of these people going right into a job once they've completed the six weeks? (00:07):
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Dannie [00:07:27]: Well, I tell you, one of the things that we had noticed, okay, a lot. A lot of times, and this is just being across the board. You know, St. Joe is not Atlanta, it's not Orlando, it's not Tampa. So you have jobs that are. When they become available, you know, people stay on those jobs. You know, they. You know, they tend to not. So what we've had to do is the success rate has been. I'm going to say it hasn't been 100%, but I'm saying that we've been about 75, 80%. (00:08):
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Amanda [00:07:58]: It sounds pretty good to me. (00:09):
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Dannie [00:08:00]: Yeah, it's pretty good. But again, you know, the hopes is if somebody sits through the program, we want to be able to put them in a job. Here's the other thing that we've done, though. This is a great part about being where we're located in Port St. Joe's we got Apalachicola, which is only about 22 miles down the highway heading east. Then you've got Panama City, which is to the west of us, and Panama City is a larger community. So, you know, we've been connecting with job employers in Panama City, other nonprofit organization who are doing similar work with communities, and we've been actually utilizing them as an outlet or an opportunity to advertise. Advertise the fact that we've got trained workers. And so that's the beauty of it is you don't necessarily have to work in Port St. Joe because of the proximity to both Panama City and Appalachicola. And by the way, Panama City is only 36 miles away. And in between Port St. Joe and Panama City there's Tyndall Air Force Base, which we've also reached out to Tyndall Air Force Base and said, “hey, we've got these trained individuals and you know, we would hope that if you as jobs become available and there's opportunities.” So a lot of times it's contracted work, of course, but when we can put people in a full time, long term, sustainable type of job, we really focus on that. (00:10):
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Amanda [00:09:23]: Yes. And the contract work piece makes sense based on everything you shared at the beginning. (00:11):
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Dannie [00:09:27]: That's exactly right. Yeah, yeah. (00:12):
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Amanda [00:09:29]: Yeah, depending on what needs are and kind of what's happening. (00:13):
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Dannie [00:09:31]: And Tyndall's doing some real major construction out there. And we placed a couple of people out with contractors out there at Tindall and that's been very successful. (00:14):
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Amanda [00:09:42]: Gotcha, gotcha. That makes sense. As far as the instruction for this, is it affiliated with a community college or who's actually leading and delivering the material? I know you do some hands-on types of projects too, it sounds like, so. (00:15):
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Dannie [00:09:56]: Well, the good thing about it is we have a close relationship with Mr. Patrick Bond and in his company, Bonds and Ferrell, and they have been been doing this type of training and for. For year number of years. In fact, his company was actually engaged in providing this type of training through the EPA for many years. But also they did some tremendous work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and they trained. So the model that they use in successfully training people to do the cleanup in New Orleans, we actually brought Patrick and his company in to help us to actually design our training program as well as to help us with the actual, you know, getting people hired. And they've had a great success, like I said, when they were doing the work after Hurricane Katrina. And then we have Ms. Crystal Hepburn, she has actually been doing this type of work for a long time. And so she did a job training program down in Tampa that was very successful. So she actually came on board as our program coordinator, you know, putting all the pieces together. So between her and Patrick and their past experience, we were able to really bring in a wealth of knowledge and experience so we didn't have to try to reinvent the wheel. But again, we're not Tampa, we're not St. Petersburg, but we're Port St. Joe. And so we had to- They had to tweak the whole process and the hiring process, the recruitment process and all that to fit the needs of our community. But we've been very successful. (00:16):
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Amanda [00:11:33]: Yeah. Talk a bit more about recruiting folks to participate in this. Is there any criteria they have to meet and how are you recruiting participants? (00:17):
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Dannie [00:11:42]: Well, I'll tell you what. We. We're doing everything we can to recruit. We're doing it in a local newspaper. Of course, we're doing it word of mouth. At one point, you know, we were actually going to the churches, of course, and putting it out. So a lot of the recruiting, though, is really done as, you know, a lot of times, you know, word of mouth. Okay. And having the local community folks understand, you know, that this is a great opportunity. But what we've had is we brought on local community people and we brought them in as recruiters, and they have been responsible for going door to door, if necessary, are reaching out again through the churches, through the other organizations that's in the community, and said, hey, here's an opportunity. You know, we've been putting flyers in people's mailboxes. You know, we've been reaching out to our other partner organizations in the community and saying, hey, here's an opportunity. We went to the employers. So, again, you know, this is. There's been some actual money spent on advertising, but in a small community like North Port St. Joe, in the community we're dealing in, it's like neighbor going to another neighbor and say, hey, look, man, here's an opportunity. Hey, young lady, here's an opportunity here. And I'll be honest with you, we've been. The ladies have really been. As far as I'm concerned, they have just been amazing in the fact that their excitement about the program. And then when we graduate the class, it's the ladies that win that at the top of the class. Okay? They're the ones that… (00:18):
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Amanda [00:13:21]: Is anybody surprised? (00:19):
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Dannie [00:13:22]: Oh, no, I'm not surprised. But again, though… (00:20):
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Amanda [00:13:25]: I know I'm just giving you a hard time. (00:21):
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Dannie [00:13:26]: I know, I know. But I'm saying that because that's what's been happening. And so it's really. It's really motivating to know that, you know, first of all, these ladies, they get into this and they are really inspiring, you know, the whole group. But the fact of the matter is, when you got a young lady or we've got. There was a couple older ladies that was in there, but when you've got somebody that goes through this and they're excited about it, they're the best form of advertising you could ask for. So we asked them a lot of times to be our ambassadors, going out and actually spreading the word. And that's how we've been able to recruit people. (00:22):
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Amanda [00:14:06]: Well, it all makes sense just to have something that people can complete quickly. Right? At no cost to them. That's going to open up a lot of opportunity. And I feel like that is so needed right now. And, you know, things are moving so fast now in the world. I think even community colleges, traditional universities, are trying to figure out, like, you know, how do we adjust our curriculum and, like, what we're training in to meet those needs? And so something shorter, I mean, it makes sense in a lot of ways. (00:23):
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Dannie [00:14:33]: Well, six weeks. Six weeks. And here's the other incentive, though. Okay. Six weeks and you get a stipend. And that's $100 a week I think it is now. And the great thing about it is, you know, the classes start out. I think the biggest class that started had about. It was about 12, 13 people in it. And in the end, only two people dropped out. So people are. When they actually get engaged and involved in this training program, they stick around. (00:24):
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Amanda [00:15:01]: Yeah. Has there been any thought to any other type of support? I mean, obviously that's great, and they can use that money toward whatever's meaningful for them. But in terms of, like, you know, childcare can be a barrier for people. Transportation can be. Any thoughts on those? (00:25):
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Dannie [00:15:16]: Amanda, you hit it right on the head. And part of what is offered there is support with child care. Okay. And that's. That's written into the grant as well. Because of the transportation, most of the people can walk to the training center, but, you know, if they had a need for transportation, there would be monies that's available for that as well. We, so far, we supported with the child care, but I don't think there has really been a need so far for transportation. Now, again, we have expanded our reach so people in Apalachicola, if they want to take the program, of course there's a stipend for that. And if you're in Panama City. But so far, it's just we haven't had anyone that actually said, hey, I need to get a stipend, but the money is definitely there. So. You brought up a good point there. There is resources for that. (00:26):
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Amanda [00:16:05]: Any specific success stories you'd like to share? (00:27):
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Dannie [00:16:09]: Oh, wow. Let's see. One of the ones that I could think about is a young man that was in the program that actually went out and got a job at Eastern Shipbuilding. Now, mind you, this young man, and I'm not going to say his name, but he had had some problems with, you know, being incarcerated. And because of his incarceration, you know, he, you know, a lot of times people didn't want to hire someone with, with, you know, and so after he went through the training program and, you know, was, you know, one of the better students that we had, and he had, he had a family and he was having a difficult time getting a job. And he was able to get a job. He was at one point, you know, having to be on the social services programs and, you know, food stamps and stuff like that. But he was able to not only turn his stuff around in terms of his life and fuel, but it really created a whole change in this young man's attitude because now he was able to take care of his family. He was, you know, quote unquote, now “earning his own” having to not go back to the lifestyle that he had before. And, you know, we're really proud of him simply because that shows, you know, what, how you, a person can feel good at just having a job and having the opportunity and, you know, how life changing that is. And so, you know, he's, he's, he's a role model for other young men in the community. But, yeah, that, to me, that really just impressed me how, you know, just being able to take care of your family and, you know, not have to involve yourself in something that could take you away from your family. (00:28):
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Amanda [00:18:00]: Yeah. And continue to go up from there, you know, once you've got that first job, I know the reentry process is really, really challenging for a lot of people. (00:29):
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Dannie [00:18:10]: It is definitely. And, you know, and if you get a felony conviction. I don't know if you're familiar with that whole process, Amanda, but it used to be you had a little check box there. If you put, you know, ask, have you ever been convicted of a felon? Now, mind you, it might have been marijuana that you were convicted for. Okay. (00:30):
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Amanda [00:18:26]: And it might have been a really long time ago. (00:31):
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Dannie [00:18:28]: A long time ago. And they would basically deny you the opportunity for a job just based on that. So, you know, this, this, this. I think this training program is really ideal for someone who, you know, is really trying to start over and get- And start a career. (00:32):
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Amanda [00:18:43]: Yeah. One of our very early podcast interviews was with a group. They're working to help, you know, with that reentry process and working on the legal aspects of how long something can stay on your record and impact you… Clean Slate Initiative. But, yeah, an important issue. And I think, you know, as more and more employers just need people and need good people, we're seeing them have to expand their, you know, thought process on how to do that. (00:33):
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Dannie [00:19:10]: Absolutely. (00:34):
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Amanda [00:19:12]: What have been some challenges in developing this, implementing this? I'm not sure how long you've been doing it. How- how many classes have you gone through? (00:35):
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Dannie [00:19:18]: Well, I think we're getting ready to do our fourth class. The challenge is. Is. Is really has the recruitment part is the challenge because, you know, it's a new program. It's. It's. It's like, you know, four to six weeks out of your life. You know, it's. It's one of those things that, you know, that we found that the first two classes, it was a lot easier to. To be able to talk about it, but it was more challenging to get people. Now we're getting the third one. The challenge is not so much now as much as. Because people have heard about the training program, what it was, but at first it was like, this is something new. You know, people were not aware of what the success was, and is it even worth me spending my time doing this? So we've sort of overcome some of those challenges. Again, the pool is not as vast as we want it to be for, you know, being able to do recruitment from. So that's the other thing. So we might have to even expand a little bit further our boundaries, like maybe go up to Wewahitchka and Blountstown and some of those areas to bring some people in. But the training is worth it. It is worth it. But the other challenge, though, I think, is we've had a couple of folks that have started the program and have stopped and for a variety of reasons, and that we really. I think that we need to really kind of go back and do some type of exit interview or some type of say, well, why did you quit? Why did you. Why did you leave the program? To see if we could overcome and maybe be able to put in place something that would allow us to be able to deal with that particular challenge. But the overall challenge, again, is, you know, just trying to keep the recruitment up and getting people into it. (00:36):
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Amanda [00:21:15]: Makes sense. Well, one thing I really want to highlight and that I loved about this story is north… North Port St. Joe. It's not that, you're not that big. Can you remind our listeners how many population. What, your population is? (00:37):
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Dannie [00:21:27]: A little over 8,000 people. Yeah. For the whole city of Port St. Joe, 8,000 people. Okay. (00:38):
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Amanda [00:21:33]: But still, it's cool. You've been able to start something like this and you're not a huge place. And so I think that's a really great example for a lot of our smaller community listeners. (00:39):
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Dannie [00:21:43]: Well, listen, you know, it's. The work is, Is really exciting and I think people can see the passion that you, as an organ, if an organization was trying to do this kind of work, you know, the excitement of it, and if you've got little small successes that you achieve, I, you know, I love working with, with communities like North Port St. Joe, because when you can see the impact of your commitment and the sacrifices that you and your board members and the community coming together to make things happen, it is such a life changing and rewarding experience. (00:40):
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Amanda [00:22:18]: Yes. Well, I'd like to move us into… I always ask a fun closer question with our guests, but it's a pretty softball question. And that is, if somebody were visiting your community for the first time, what is a bucket list item that you would say they definitely need to do? I bet you all have some pretty coastlines. So that might be what you say, but what do you think? (00:41):
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Dannie [00:22:39]: Well, I'll tell you what, if, if we were coming into Port St. Joe, I would say first of all, stop right at the Intercoastal Waterway Bridge and take a deep breath. And as you get up to the top of that Intercoastal Waterway Bridge, look to your right, look to your left, look straight ahead, look at some of the world's most beautiful coastline. That's the first thing. As you come into the city of Port St. Joe, understand that this community is one that was called the Forgotten Coast. Okay. They didn't want a whole lot of people to know about this beautiful place called Port St. Joe. Okay. And the history that it has. So I would go out and I would take. The first place I would go is go out to the Washington High School Museum, which is located at North Port St. Joe on the campus of the Washington High School campus, which was the all black school that existed for many, many years up to 1960. Because that museum there gives you the history of the black community in Port St. Joe, the contributions that was made. The mule workers and the history of the mule workers. The next thing I would tell you to do is go out and visit our centennial building, which has the history actually where they actually sign, I think it was the first constitution, for the state of Florida was signed there. (00:42):
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Amanda [00:24:17]: Cool. (00:43):
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Dannie [00:24:17]: Yeah. Port St. Joe was a very prosperous and a very successful community. And then we've got the state museum right there that has the history and the legacy of the community. And then I would tell you then you need to hit our beaches. You need to go downtown in Port St. Joe, Reed Avenue and eat some of the good seafood. By the way, you want to get some good seafood… there it is. Oysters, crab, shrimp, you name it. It's a bustling place and right now it's growing and it's bulging at the scenes. Okay. And then when you go out on the Cape out there, you want to spend some time spending your time on the beach. But lastly, here's what you want to do. You want to go over right across the street from the Port Inn and you want to look at that sunset. That is one of the most beautiful sunsets you'll ever see. (00:44):
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Amanda [00:25:13]: Well, that was a glowing list of suggestions and good storytelling to go with it. I love that. That makes me very ready for a summer beach trip. Well, thank you so much, Dannie. Certainly you're in one of the prettiest parts of our country and also love the work that you're doing. And thank you so much for taking a few minutes to share about it. (00:45):
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Dannie [00:25:36]: Amanda, anytime, anytime. And thank you for inviting me to speak to you guys. I appreciate it. (00:46):
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Amanda [00:25:45]: Thanks for listening to the Livability podcast, where we take you Inside America's Best Cities. At Livability, we highlight the unsung awesomeness of small and mid-sized cities across the country. We also partner with communities to reach their target companies and potential residents through digital content and print magazine programs. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate, and review this show. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can also learn more about us at livabilitymedia.com. Have an idea for an upcoming episode? Email me at aellis@livability.com. Until next time, from Livability, I'm Amanda Ellis, sharing the stories of America's most promising places. (00:47):
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Amanda [00:00:41]: That's the voice of Dannie Bolden, program developer and community liaison for the North Port St. Joe Community Development Corporation. He joins us to share about this small community's free six week brownfield training which equips residents with green collar skills and also creates sustainable job opportunities. Learn more about this podcast at livabilitymedia.com and with. that, let's jump in. Thank you, Dannie, so much for joining us today on Inside America's Best Cities. We're going to talk about some skills training you all are doing in your community related to environmental concerns and how you're tying all that together. So thanks so much for being here. (00:01):
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Dannie [00:01:24]: You're welcome. No problem at all. I'm glad to be here. (00:02):
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Amanda [00:01:29]: Can you kick us off by just telling us a little, some more details about the program, what specific skills that it's teaching and you know, how you selected those depending on needs in the community? (00:03):
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Dannie [00:01:40]: Oh, absolutely. Well, just a brief history in relationship to the community of North Port St. Joe. It is a community that has quite a few environmental injustices in relationship to the community itself. And you know, it was a community that was located next to a paper mill in a chemical plant. And as a result of the community being located so closely to those two industries, the paper company would actually take some of its waste and materials and other debris and put it on a landfill and created a landfill that covered up an underground stream that flowed directly through the community. And so after they filled in that landfill again with the stream flowing underneath it, they sold the property to folks who lived in the community there who built homes on it. And subsequently those homes, the debris started to decay and those homes started sinking because of the stream still flowing underneath it. And so we began to look at how could we address trying to remediate some of the issues relative to the home sinking in the ground. And we went out and applied for EPA grant that would allow us to access some resources to not only be able to understand what the environmental issues were in terms of the soil contamination in the ground sinking and everything, but was there a way that we could actually be able to use this as an opportunity to train people in the community to do the work, to do the cleanup? And so the program is actually one of the grants that we were successful in getting from the EPA. It's called the EPA Jobs Training Grant. And as I said, it was really about trying to train local community members, people who might want to understand how to do environmental cleanup, soil remediation, dealing with asbestos removal, mold removal, understanding the whole educational part about how to be able to go in and be able to help with actually cleaning up the soil as a result of the contamination. But as well as it was a great opportunity for someone to get a skill set because as you know, down in Florida we get a lot of hurricanes and a lot of time there's hurricane damage in parts of the state where they have to actually bring in people to do a lot of the asbestos removal and cleanup. So this was an opportunity to actually train someone who might not have a skill and not only being able to help us to address the immediate problems we have in the community, but looking at the fact that this could be a job skill that could possibly turn into a career where a person could actually be able to use it wherever the need or the emergency might arise. (00:04):
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Amanda [00:04:44]: Yeah, that's helpful backstory and great idea to connect everything up in that way. Once people have completed this program, where would they typically be getting a job or working? Are there local companies that are doing that? (00:05):
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Dannie [00:04:55]: Yes, yes, you're absolutely correct. So we established real close working relationship with one of our larger employees in the community, which is Eastern Shipbuilding Company. And of course, you know, having people, first of all, that have some type of skill sets to be able to, you know, take on some of the jobs that they had was, was something that they were interested in. But they also wanted to support the program because, you know, one of the things we were really also addressing is the unemployment in the community. So you brought a person in who we've had trained and making them available to Eastern Shipbuilding as a trained employee. They know that this person can sit through and learn. They know that this person has a skill set that they brought to brought with them that was very, very useful. And then we were working very closely with what we call Career Source, which is a state funded program that, that actually would actually allow people to, while they're going through a training program, be able to have access to the computer system if they needed to go out and sit in a room and write up a resume, type up a resume, or if they wanted to actually learn more about the subject matter that was being taught in the classroom. And Career Source was also very connected with the other industries that we had in the county as well, and that's with the Department of Corrections, the city of Port St. Joe, and the County. And one of the things that we were really excited about was the director of the city's wastewater treatment program was actually one of the instructors. And so he actually took people in and showed them that whole process of how it worked in terms of how it relates to the environment and everything, but also had indicated that as jobs became available there, that he would be, you know, using some of the people that were actually reaching out with some of the people who went through the jobs training program and providing them with opportunities. And so we just scoured the area, you know, not only in Port St. Joe, Panama City as well, and saying, “hey, look, we've got these trained people. We got some opportunities for them to get additional training, and would you be willing to support the program and hire them once they complete it?” And so we were very successful with that. (00:06):
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Amanda [00:07:20]: So there's a pretty high success rate then of these people going right into a job once they've completed the six weeks? (00:07):
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Dannie [00:07:27]: Well, I tell you, one of the things that we had noticed, okay, a lot. A lot of times, and this is just being across the board. You know, St. Joe is not Atlanta, it's not Orlando, it's not Tampa. So you have jobs that are. When they become available, you know, people stay on those jobs. You know, they. You know, they tend to not. So what we've had to do is the success rate has been. I'm going to say it hasn't been 100%, but I'm saying that we've been about 75, 80%. (00:08):
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Amanda [00:07:58]: It sounds pretty good to me. (00:09):
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Dannie [00:08:00]: Yeah, it's pretty good. But again, you know, the hopes is if somebody sits through the program, we want to be able to put them in a job. Here's the other thing that we've done, though. This is a great part about being where we're located in Port St. Joe's we got Apalachicola, which is only about 22 miles down the highway heading east. Then you've got Panama City, which is to the west of us, and Panama City is a larger community. So, you know, we've been connecting with job employers in Panama City, other nonprofit organization who are doing similar work with communities, and we've been actually utilizing them as an outlet or an opportunity to advertise. Advertise the fact that we've got trained workers. And so that's the beauty of it is you don't necessarily have to work in Port St. Joe because of the proximity to both Panama City and Appalachicola. And by the way, Panama City is only 36 miles away. And in between Port St. Joe and Panama City there's Tyndall Air Force Base, which we've also reached out to Tyndall Air Force Base and said, “hey, we've got these trained individuals and you know, we would hope that if you as jobs become available and there's opportunities.” So a lot of times it's contracted work, of course, but when we can put people in a full time, long term, sustainable type of job, we really focus on that. (00:10):
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Amanda [00:09:23]: Yes. And the contract work piece makes sense based on everything you shared at the beginning. (00:11):
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Dannie [00:09:27]: That's exactly right. Yeah, yeah. (00:12):
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Amanda [00:09:29]: Yeah, depending on what needs are and kind of what's happening. (00:13):
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Dannie [00:09:31]: And Tyndall's doing some real major construction out there. And we placed a couple of people out with contractors out there at Tindall and that's been very successful. (00:14):
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Amanda [00:09:42]: Gotcha, gotcha. That makes sense. As far as the instruction for this, is it affiliated with a community college or who's actually leading and delivering the material? I know you do some hands-on types of projects too, it sounds like, so. (00:15):
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Dannie [00:09:56]: Well, the good thing about it is we have a close relationship with Mr. Patrick Bond and in his company, Bonds and Ferrell, and they have been been doing this type of training and for. For year number of years. In fact, his company was actually engaged in providing this type of training through the EPA for many years. But also they did some tremendous work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and they trained. So the model that they use in successfully training people to do the cleanup in New Orleans, we actually brought Patrick and his company in to help us to actually design our training program as well as to help us with the actual, you know, getting people hired. And they've had a great success, like I said, when they were doing the work after Hurricane Katrina. And then we have Ms. Crystal Hepburn, she has actually been doing this type of work for a long time. And so she did a job training program down in Tampa that was very successful. So she actually came on board as our program coordinator, you know, putting all the pieces together. So between her and Patrick and their past experience, we were able to really bring in a wealth of knowledge and experience so we didn't have to try to reinvent the wheel. But again, we're not Tampa, we're not St. Petersburg, but we're Port St. Joe. And so we had to- They had to tweak the whole process and the hiring process, the recruitment process and all that to fit the needs of our community. But we've been very successful. (00:16):
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Amanda [00:11:33]: Yeah. Talk a bit more about recruiting folks to participate in this. Is there any criteria they have to meet and how are you recruiting participants? (00:17):
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Dannie [00:11:42]: Well, I'll tell you what. We. We're doing everything we can to recruit. We're doing it in a local newspaper. Of course, we're doing it word of mouth. At one point, you know, we were actually going to the churches, of course, and putting it out. So a lot of the recruiting, though, is really done as, you know, a lot of times, you know, word of mouth. Okay. And having the local community folks understand, you know, that this is a great opportunity. But what we've had is we brought on local community people and we brought them in as recruiters, and they have been responsible for going door to door, if necessary, are reaching out again through the churches, through the other organizations that's in the community, and said, hey, here's an opportunity. You know, we've been putting flyers in people's mailboxes. You know, we've been reaching out to our other partner organizations in the community and saying, hey, here's an opportunity. We went to the employers. So, again, you know, this is. There's been some actual money spent on advertising, but in a small community like North Port St. Joe, in the community we're dealing in, it's like neighbor going to another neighbor and say, hey, look, man, here's an opportunity. Hey, young lady, here's an opportunity here. And I'll be honest with you, we've been. The ladies have really been. As far as I'm concerned, they have just been amazing in the fact that their excitement about the program. And then when we graduate the class, it's the ladies that win that at the top of the class. Okay? They're the ones that… (00:18):
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Amanda [00:13:21]: Is anybody surprised? (00:19):
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Dannie [00:13:22]: Oh, no, I'm not surprised. But again, though… (00:20):
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Amanda [00:13:25]: I know I'm just giving you a hard time. (00:21):
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Dannie [00:13:26]: I know, I know. But I'm saying that because that's what's been happening. And so it's really. It's really motivating to know that, you know, first of all, these ladies, they get into this and they are really inspiring, you know, the whole group. But the fact of the matter is, when you got a young lady or we've got. There was a couple older ladies that was in there, but when you've got somebody that goes through this and they're excited about it, they're the best form of advertising you could ask for. So we asked them a lot of times to be our ambassadors, going out and actually spreading the word. And that's how we've been able to recruit people. (00:22):
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Amanda [00:14:06]: Well, it all makes sense just to have something that people can complete quickly. Right? At no cost to them. That's going to open up a lot of opportunity. And I feel like that is so needed right now. And, you know, things are moving so fast now in the world. I think even community colleges, traditional universities, are trying to figure out, like, you know, how do we adjust our curriculum and, like, what we're training in to meet those needs? And so something shorter, I mean, it makes sense in a lot of ways. (00:23):
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Dannie [00:14:33]: Well, six weeks. Six weeks. And here's the other incentive, though. Okay. Six weeks and you get a stipend. And that's $100 a week I think it is now. And the great thing about it is, you know, the classes start out. I think the biggest class that started had about. It was about 12, 13 people in it. And in the end, only two people dropped out. So people are. When they actually get engaged and involved in this training program, they stick around. (00:24):
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Amanda [00:15:01]: Yeah. Has there been any thought to any other type of support? I mean, obviously that's great, and they can use that money toward whatever's meaningful for them. But in terms of, like, you know, childcare can be a barrier for people. Transportation can be. Any thoughts on those? (00:25):
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Dannie [00:15:16]: Amanda, you hit it right on the head. And part of what is offered there is support with child care. Okay. And that's. That's written into the grant as well. Because of the transportation, most of the people can walk to the training center, but, you know, if they had a need for transportation, there would be monies that's available for that as well. We, so far, we supported with the child care, but I don't think there has really been a need so far for transportation. Now, again, we have expanded our reach so people in Apalachicola, if they want to take the program, of course there's a stipend for that. And if you're in Panama City. But so far, it's just we haven't had anyone that actually said, hey, I need to get a stipend, but the money is definitely there. So. You brought up a good point there. There is resources for that. (00:26):
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Amanda [00:16:05]: Any specific success stories you'd like to share? (00:27):
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Dannie [00:16:09]: Oh, wow. Let's see. One of the ones that I could think about is a young man that was in the program that actually went out and got a job at Eastern Shipbuilding. Now, mind you, this young man, and I'm not going to say his name, but he had had some problems with, you know, being incarcerated. And because of his incarceration, you know, he, you know, a lot of times people didn't want to hire someone with, with, you know, and so after he went through the training program and, you know, was, you know, one of the better students that we had, and he had, he had a family and he was having a difficult time getting a job. And he was able to get a job. He was at one point, you know, having to be on the social services programs and, you know, food stamps and stuff like that. But he was able to not only turn his stuff around in terms of his life and fuel, but it really created a whole change in this young man's attitude because now he was able to take care of his family. He was, you know, quote unquote, now “earning his own” having to not go back to the lifestyle that he had before. And, you know, we're really proud of him simply because that shows, you know, what, how you, a person can feel good at just having a job and having the opportunity and, you know, how life changing that is. And so, you know, he's, he's, he's a role model for other young men in the community. But, yeah, that, to me, that really just impressed me how, you know, just being able to take care of your family and, you know, not have to involve yourself in something that could take you away from your family. (00:28):
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Amanda [00:18:00]: Yeah. And continue to go up from there, you know, once you've got that first job, I know the reentry process is really, really challenging for a lot of people. (00:29):
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Dannie [00:18:10]: It is definitely. And, you know, and if you get a felony conviction. I don't know if you're familiar with that whole process, Amanda, but it used to be you had a little check box there. If you put, you know, ask, have you ever been convicted of a felon? Now, mind you, it might have been marijuana that you were convicted for. Okay. (00:30):
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Amanda [00:18:26]: And it might have been a really long time ago. (00:31):
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Dannie [00:18:28]: A long time ago. And they would basically deny you the opportunity for a job just based on that. So, you know, this, this, this. I think this training program is really ideal for someone who, you know, is really trying to start over and get- And start a career. (00:32):
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Amanda [00:18:43]: Yeah. One of our very early podcast interviews was with a group. They're working to help, you know, with that reentry process and working on the legal aspects of how long something can stay on your record and impact you… Clean Slate Initiative. But, yeah, an important issue. And I think, you know, as more and more employers just need people and need good people, we're seeing them have to expand their, you know, thought process on how to do that. (00:33):
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Dannie [00:19:10]: Absolutely. (00:34):
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Amanda [00:19:12]: What have been some challenges in developing this, implementing this? I'm not sure how long you've been doing it. How- how many classes have you gone through? (00:35):
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Dannie [00:19:18]: Well, I think we're getting ready to do our fourth class. The challenge is. Is. Is really has the recruitment part is the challenge because, you know, it's a new program. It's. It's. It's like, you know, four to six weeks out of your life. You know, it's. It's one of those things that, you know, that we found that the first two classes, it was a lot easier to. To be able to talk about it, but it was more challenging to get people. Now we're getting the third one. The challenge is not so much now as much as. Because people have heard about the training program, what it was, but at first it was like, this is something new. You know, people were not aware of what the success was, and is it even worth me spending my time doing this? So we've sort of overcome some of those challenges. Again, the pool is not as vast as we want it to be for, you know, being able to do recruitment from. So that's the other thing. So we might have to even expand a little bit further our boundaries, like maybe go up to Wewahitchka and Blountstown and some of those areas to bring some people in. But the training is worth it. It is worth it. But the other challenge, though, I think, is we've had a couple of folks that have started the program and have stopped and for a variety of reasons, and that we really. I think that we need to really kind of go back and do some type of exit interview or some type of say, well, why did you quit? Why did you. Why did you leave the program? To see if we could overcome and maybe be able to put in place something that would allow us to be able to deal with that particular challenge. But the overall challenge, again, is, you know, just trying to keep the recruitment up and getting people into it. (00:36):
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Amanda [00:21:15]: Makes sense. Well, one thing I really want to highlight and that I loved about this story is north… North Port St. Joe. It's not that, you're not that big. Can you remind our listeners how many population. What, your population is? (00:37):
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Dannie [00:21:27]: A little over 8,000 people. Yeah. For the whole city of Port St. Joe, 8,000 people. Okay. (00:38):
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Amanda [00:21:33]: But still, it's cool. You've been able to start something like this and you're not a huge place. And so I think that's a really great example for a lot of our smaller community listeners. (00:39):
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Dannie [00:21:43]: Well, listen, you know, it's. The work is, Is really exciting and I think people can see the passion that you, as an organ, if an organization was trying to do this kind of work, you know, the excitement of it, and if you've got little small successes that you achieve, I, you know, I love working with, with communities like North Port St. Joe, because when you can see the impact of your commitment and the sacrifices that you and your board members and the community coming together to make things happen, it is such a life changing and rewarding experience. (00:40):
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Amanda [00:22:18]: Yes. Well, I'd like to move us into… I always ask a fun closer question with our guests, but it's a pretty softball question. And that is, if somebody were visiting your community for the first time, what is a bucket list item that you would say they definitely need to do? I bet you all have some pretty coastlines. So that might be what you say, but what do you think? (00:41):
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Dannie [00:22:39]: Well, I'll tell you what, if, if we were coming into Port St. Joe, I would say first of all, stop right at the Intercoastal Waterway Bridge and take a deep breath. And as you get up to the top of that Intercoastal Waterway Bridge, look to your right, look to your left, look straight ahead, look at some of the world's most beautiful coastline. That's the first thing. As you come into the city of Port St. Joe, understand that this community is one that was called the Forgotten Coast. Okay. They didn't want a whole lot of people to know about this beautiful place called Port St. Joe. Okay. And the history that it has. So I would go out and I would take. The first place I would go is go out to the Washington High School Museum, which is located at North Port St. Joe on the campus of the Washington High School campus, which was the all black school that existed for many, many years up to 1960. Because that museum there gives you the history of the black community in Port St. Joe, the contributions that was made. The mule workers and the history of the mule workers. The next thing I would tell you to do is go out and visit our centennial building, which has the history actually where they actually sign, I think it was the first constitution, for the state of Florida was signed there. (00:42):
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Amanda [00:24:17]: Cool. (00:43):
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Dannie [00:24:17]: Yeah. Port St. Joe was a very prosperous and a very successful community. And then we've got the state museum right there that has the history and the legacy of the community. And then I would tell you then you need to hit our beaches. You need to go downtown in Port St. Joe, Reed Avenue and eat some of the good seafood. By the way, you want to get some good seafood… there it is. Oysters, crab, shrimp, you name it. It's a bustling place and right now it's growing and it's bulging at the scenes. Okay. And then when you go out on the Cape out there, you want to spend some time spending your time on the beach. But lastly, here's what you want to do. You want to go over right across the street from the Port Inn and you want to look at that sunset. That is one of the most beautiful sunsets you'll ever see. (00:44):
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Amanda [00:25:13]: Well, that was a glowing list of suggestions and good storytelling to go with it. I love that. That makes me very ready for a summer beach trip. Well, thank you so much, Dannie. Certainly you're in one of the prettiest parts of our country and also love the work that you're doing. And thank you so much for taking a few minutes to share about it. (00:45):
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Dannie [00:25:36]: Amanda, anytime, anytime. And thank you for inviting me to speak to you guys. I appreciate it. (00:46):
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Amanda [00:25:45]: Thanks for listening to the Livability podcast, where we take you Inside America's Best Cities. At Livability, we highlight the unsung awesomeness of small and mid-sized cities across the country. We also partner with communities to reach their target companies and potential residents through digital content and print magazine programs. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow, rate, and review this show. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can also learn more about us at livabilitymedia.com. Have an idea for an upcoming episode? Email me at aellis@livability.com. Until next time, from Livability, I'm Amanda Ellis, sharing the stories of America's most promising places. (00:47):
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