Jobs & Hope West Virginia: Building a Path from Securing an ID to Meaningful Employment

One of the largest challenges confronting the homeless in West Virginia is finding employment as many of the unhoused lack any verifiable form of identification. Employers generally won’t hire anyone who doesn’t have an ID such as a driver’s license; unhoused individuals who lack ID often lack the resources to travel and find their birth certificate or visit a Social Security office to get that nine-digit number. Some of these citizens have lost everything; others lost their driver’s license privileges after yet another DUI. It’s a chicken-or-the-egg situation that many homeless individuals say prevents them from finishing their education or finding decent work.

Jobs & Hope West Virginia, a long-time community partner with the Regional Task Force on Homelessness, Addiction, and Mental Health, has been removing that barrier in North Central West Virginia and across the state.

A Door to Jobs & Hope

Jobs & Hope West Virginia has made the path toward scoring an ID, and doors to employment, far easier.

This organization is one of the Mountain State’s responses to the substance use disorder crisis. Launched by the West Virginia Legislature and signed into law in 2019, this program has brought together various state agencies to provide West Virginians in recovery opportunities to start career training and find meaningful employment.

Eligibility to participate in this program is straightforward. Participants must:

• Be a West Virginia resident age 18 or older
• Make it clear employment is their goal
• Show any obstacle they face in securing employment
• Be ready for career training or job placement
• Be willing enroll in a training or educational program
• Commit to maintaining their recovery
• Agree to random drug testing during their participation in this program
• Commit to providing these results to a Jobs & Hope representative, called a Transition Agent

For West Virginians who feel they have lost everything to substance use disorder, including proof of identity, the Jobs & Hope program can help participants obtain a West Virginia state ID card, the important first step in rebuilding their lives. Upon agreeing to participate in this program, a Jobs & Hope Transition Agent will work with an individual to obtain the information needed to get a new state ID card. Depending on how much information an individual has, the Transition Agent can help them get that new state ID within a few days – or even overnight.

Taking the Bureaucracy out of the Path toward Recovery

Jobs & Hope Transition Agents do more than cut through red tape to help the unhoused and residents in recovery regain an ID. They can drive participants to the DMV, and even job interviews, while the program’s participants go through the process to earn their driver’s license.

Several of Jobs & Hope’s success stories are posted here. Transition Agents have helped residents find work previously impossible due to DUIs on their record, connected them to resources so they can learn a new trade, or led them on the path toward sober living.

The results have included empowering individuals to move away from minimum-wage jobs; helping participants regain custody of their children; rekindling their dreams of finishing their college education; and successfully transitioning from being homeless to being able to own a vehicle and rent a home.

Is your organization pulling out all the stops so that Elkins can become a better place for all of its residents? Please contact External Affairs to discuss an article showcasing your organization’s work.