Employment Guru and So Much More…

Ronica Chambers, Life Skills Coordinator at Capitol Pavilion, started with Firetree, Ltd. in August of 2018.  “Life Skills Coordinator” might be Ms. Chamber’s title but she supports our residents in many other ways. She assists them with finding housing, applying for medical benefits, obtaining birth certificates and Social Security cards. Ms. Chambers is a trained CPR & First Aid Certified Teacher and she holds classes for staff and clients at Capitol. Ms.Chambers “superpower” is her ability to help the re-entrants at Capitol Pavilion find good, sustainable employment. Capitol Pavilion residents come to the facility directly from incarceration and many have never had legitimate and/or sustainable employment. Ms.Chambers doesn’t let that stop her – if a resident is willing she usually has them gainfully employed within their first week of arrival. Ms.Chambers noted, “My favorite part of my job is seeing residents who never held a job in their life come and thank me after being told in prison that getting a job would be hard here. They have employment the first day they come to Capitol Pavilion.” Ms.Chambers was also recognized by the State Parole Agent assigned to the Center who said, “I want to thank you – I worked at several Centers in the area and have never seen someone work as hard as you at getting residents good paying jobs.”

Ms. Chambers was asked what sets Capitol Pavilion apart from other facilities and she stated, “I think that even though it can be a very stressful job at times, what sets Capitol Pavilion apart is the team work from my co- workers. We go above and beyond to help people stay on track and get back to their families.” Once COVID declines, Ms. Chambers would like to start building more community relationships with employers and resources to help the re-entrants.  She added, “I really enjoy making an impact in the work I do along with my team. I’m hoping that the residents know that even though we enforce the rules and regulations, we want them to succeed.”