How training got one Philly man a job

Setbacks are for comebacks. Those were the words Dupree Norman, 53, used during his speech, which drew thunderous applause at the District 1199C Training and Upgrading Fund graduation ceremony at the Kimmel Center.

After many odd jobs and getting fired from a job, followed by six years of unemployment, Norman has a job in health care.

He completed the union's free behavioral health technician training program and graduated June 4.

"I came to 1199C when I needed a change," he said. "My life changed from day one. They took me in and accepted me as a part of the family. They never gave up on me."

Cheryl Feldman, executive director of 1199C, said: "When he came to the program, he was in a hopeless situation. He took advantage of the opportunity and put his heart and soul into it."

Norman now works at JEVS Human Services, a nonprofit social-services agency, as a behavioral health technician, earning more than the city's minimum wage of $12. Norman supports residents with intellectual disabilities. "Interacting with clients is the best part of the job because I am helping them do things they don't believe they can do," he said.

According to projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of people working in psychiatric technician jobs is set to grow 5 percent from 2012 to 2022, slower than the average 10.8 percent for all occupations.

Growing far faster than average are personal-care and home health aides as well as occupational therapy assistants.

Job training can be key to getting a better job, said Christine Covington-Hoess, job developer at 1199C. "Life skills and occupational skills, which the training fund teaches, will really work well to combat poverty and break the cycle of unemployment," she said.

The Mayor's Office of Community, Empowerment and Opportunity awarded $200,000 to 1199C to run three programs - behavioral health, nurse aides, and home health aides. The eight-month training cost $4,000 to $4,500 per student in Norman's class of 15.

When he graduated from West Philadelphia High School in 1979, Norman enlisted in the Navy. He was a yeoman, performing administrative work, and was deployed in Italy for two years.

After returning in April 1981, he worked as a school bus attendant, a trash collector, and an IRS clerk in the receipt and control branch. In 1993, he married his first wife and moved to Atlanta with her. In Atlanta, he had a string of odd jobs as a painter, a mail room clerk, and a packer at a sewing machine factory. Norman returned to Philadelphia in 2004 and worked for SEPTA as a maintenance custodian.

He got married a second time in 2007. When his father passed away in 2009, Norman said, he slid into depression and was dismissed from SEPTA for taking too much time off, he said. He couldn't find a job after SEPTA.

For six years, every day, he would wait outside a Home Depot store on Adams Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard soliciting for work, doing any form of manual labor he could get, working for anyone he could. On good weeks, he would earn about $200. "It was very tough not being able to provide for my wife. She was providing for me," Norman said.

Last year, Norman heard about 1199C's program through a friend and decided to enroll. For eight months, Norman attended classes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. He has received certifications for CPR and mental-health first aid.

"His perseverance is something I will remember - he's a survivor; he never gave up," Covington-Hoess said.

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