Jobs, jobs jobs. The word is on the lips of every D.C. politician. They spout the grim numbers: communities east of the Anacostia River have more unemployed than anywhere in the country. Mayor Vince Gray won election in part because he promised to create jobs. Talking jobs is the mayor’s refuge when reporters pester him about the unpleasantness of scandals engulfing his campaign.
In search of someone actually training workers and helping them find jobs, I stopped by AYT Institute on 14th and R Streets one steamy morning last week. Mechanics were fixing cars in the first floor bays, but upstairs teachers were teaching, and students — in this case two men recently released from jail — were learning.
“I call them second chance citizens,” says Darryl Hallman. director of the school for mechanics. “About 75 percent of our students are coming back after time in prison.”
At a time when political talk jobs, Hallman and AYT are doing the real work of turning ex-cons into productive members of society. They have trained hundreds and found jobs for most. Their thanks from the city and its talkative pols has been scant. In the last round of budget cuts, Hallman says the city cut its $8,000 tax credit for each student in half.
“We’ve started a foundation to try and raise funds,” Hallman tells me. “It hasn’t stopped us.”
In fact, AYT is expanding. Crowded out of its 14th Street home by encroaching condominiums, Hallman is setting up shop in a warehouse at New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road. “We will have enough room for 150 students,” Hallman says. “We would like to put every unemployed person to work. That’s our goal.”
It was just an idea back in 2005 when Hallman started AYT Institute with his boss, Gary Zhu. Hallman and Zhu are a perfect pair, made in D.C.
Hallman, 53, grew up around Benning Road in the Shrimp Boat neighborhood. He graduated from H.D. Woodson High and enlisted with the Marines in 1974. He returned home and landed jobs with Metro and DPW, working himself up from driving buses to management.
Hallman met Gary Zhu when the Chinese immigrant was starting his career as an expert mechanic. “He fixed my cars,” says Hallman, “and we became friends.”
Zhu went on to establish six AYT auto repair shops. He asked Hallman to help manage the shops in 2002. Three years later Zhu put up the money to establish AYT Institute. “We both believed it was time to give back,” Hallman says.
AYT got licensed by the Office of State Superintendent Of Education. General Motors donated teaching tools. The Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) sends students, like Londell, 33, who came to AYT after a short stretch for carrying a pistol without a license. “I’m about to graduate and get a job,” he tells me.
Here’s a job for D.C. pols: show up at AYT one morning, and see how to train people, rather than talk about it.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
