LEXINGTON, Ky. — Mayor Linda Gorton announced a partnership with Jubilee Jobs of Lexington to create a program that helps people who are incarcerated develop employability skills with the goal of landing a job after leaving jail.

What You Need To Know

  • The city of Lexington is partnering with Jubilee Jobs to implement a six-week program, the Second Chance Academy, which will consist of classes that will teach skills on how to get a job and keep it to people who are incarcerated

  • Robert Barbosa, a job counselor with Jubilee Jobs, was in and out of jail for several years and received guidance from the organization while in a recovery program

  • Now he is paying it forward by working with Jubilee Jobs and he will be involved with the Second Chance Academy

  • While Jubilee Jobs has been working with people who are incarcerated, the Second Chance Academy is the first of its kind. Representatives with the city and organization are looking forward to the program

The program is called the Second Chance Academy and it will consist of a six-week program where participants will take classes that will help them to not only get a job, but to help them keep that job.

“Having the opportunity to be in the Fayette County Detention Center and work directly with these inmates, prior to their release, we know it’s going to give us the strategic opportunity to invest and impact their lives,” said Mason King, the CEO of Jubilee Jobs.

Robert Barbosa, a job counselor with Jubilee Jobs, is looking forward to this partnership to continue to give back through the organization that played a role in helping him change his life.

“For, I’d say 30 years, I lived a life of addiction, just in and out of jails most of my life,” said Barbosa. “I never had a chance to better myself. I thought the life I was living was the life I was destined for.”

He was given the opportunity to join a recovery program, Revive Life House, in Nicholasville at the age of 42. It was there that he came across Jubilee Jobs.

“One of the opportunities was Jubilee Jobs coming in to our program and offering us a service, teaching us the importance of dressing properly for employment, the importance of interviewing correctly,” said Barbosa.

In his role as job counselor with the organization, he will be in many of the classes that participants will be attending throughout the six-week program.

“It’s just an honor to be able to do that,” said Barbosa.

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