Job programs here offer a second chance for many
By Kelly Yamanouchi
Advertiser Staff Writer
Daniel Keohohou just reached a major personal milestone — his first anniversary of working at Subway Sandwiches And Salads in Waikele.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
"I've never had a job this long before," Keohohou said. "It keeps me busy, so I don't get into more mischief."
Daniel Keohohou, a convicted felon, takes orders from behind the counter at Subway Sandwiches and Salads in Waikele. He has Mona-Lisa McRae, a Subway franchisee, to thank for his job; she makes it a point to hire people who are disadvantaged, including those on welfare or with criminal records or substance-abuse problems. "I think that is so awesome," Keohohou says. "I was one of those people."
Keohohou at 22 is a convicted felon. Three years ago, he was caught driving a stolen vehicle.
"I wanted to fit in," Keohohou said. "I started off (doing) drugs when I was in seventh grade."
He said he was sentenced to probation and 100 hours of community service and was told to find a full-time job.
That's how he met Mona-Lisa McRae, a Subway franchise owner with two stores in Kailua and one in Waikele, who makes a point of hiring the disadvantaged, including people on welfare and those with criminal records or substance-abuse problems.
"I think that's so awesome," Keohohou said. "I was one of those people."
McRae helps disadvantaged workers for the satisfaction it brings her, but there are other benefits.
For one, there are employer incentives, including tax write-offs and programs like Hawai'i's Transitional Opportunity Program, which places welfare recipients in on-the-job training at almost no cost to employers for six months.
As many as 130 employers in Hawai'i take advantage of the department's incentive programs, while others hire disadvantaged workers directly without using incentives, according to the state Department of Human Services.
McRae acknowledges it's no easy task to employ ex-convicts and welfare recipients — her job is part business owner and part counselor.
Some of the people who work for her "have very unstable lives and they have dysfunctional families," McRae said. "It takes a lot of patience."
Early on, workers stole money, so she had to find creative ways to keep them honest — such as putting in cameras and taking away the free meals during work if the cash drawer is short at the end of the day.
Sometimes her employees simply don't show up, and McRae has to step in to work extra hours, occasionally staying past midnight to catch up with running the shops and filling catering orders.
Not all of the employees she trains stick with the job, and she lets a lot more things slide than others would.
McRae uses skills she developed in her previous profession as a counselor.
"I don't make judgments as to how a person looks from the outer facade," McRae said.
Keohohou, for one, wore an electronic monitor as part of his probation when he first started working at Subway. Now, his life is more stable and he hopes to eventually go to community college. Most of his friends right now have full-time jobs, and he says he tries to stay away from old friends whom he got into trouble with.
"The rewarding part is to see them develop their self-esteem and become productive individuals," McRae said.
And there's another reason she tries to help people who face challenges in getting work.
"Have you seen the movie 'Pay it Forward'?" she asks. The idea in the movie, based on a book by Catherine Ryan Hyde, is that if someone does you a favor, instead of paying it back, you pay it forward by doing favors for three other people. If those three people did the same and so on, the favors would branch out to many others.
McRae's husband received a grant as a disabled veteran to establish the Subway business.
"Because of this opportunity to be gainfully employed, we decided to give back," McRae said. "We're paying it forward because we were given the opportunity, being disadvantaged. We wanted to help other disadvantaged people."
So she hires people through the welfare-to-work program and has established a partnership with a vocational rehabilitation program and Winners at Work, a nonprofit organization that helps people overcome barriers to employment.
"Then they were just walking in off the street also," McRae said.
"If we can just create jobs and give these individuals a second chance at being financially independent, that would break the vicious cycle that they're living," she said. "The people can't get gainful employment, so they have nowhere else to turn but the substance abuse. The only way you know how to get money is to go back to dealing drugs."
McRae thinks other employers could do more to help.
"If other businesses could at least chip in and hire one individual — disadvantaged, inopportune, youth at risk, welfare-to-work or whatever — I think we could find the solution to the problem that our Islands are facing with the war on crystal methamphetamine."
Reach Kelly Yamanouchi at 535-2470 or kyamanouchi@honoluluadvertiser.com.
