Welding a Stronger Future
Date Posted: April 24, 2018
Posted In: Workforce,
From U.S. Department of Labor: When Steven Shewry walked out of the gates of Iowa’s Anamosa State Penitentiary on Jan. 30, 2017, he could not have imagined that in just 10 short months, he’d be walking across a Des Moines stage accepting the America’s Job Honor Award for overcoming obstacles to employment.
Drug and alcohol abuse that began in his teens set Steven on a violent path. His behavior throughout his 20s tarnished his relationships with his daughter and other family members, and eventually resulted in a prison sentence for willful injury.
“When incarcerated, you think you need to be tough ‒ but I decided I needed to change my mindset to better myself for when I got out,” he said. “I wanted to earn the trust of my family and rebuild my life.”
Steven, who had done some welding in factories in his early adulthood, learned of a four-year welding apprenticeship at Anamosa State Penitentiary. He enrolled after some encouragement from Tim Diesburg, a former Apprenticeship Coordinator with the Iowa Department of Corrections, who started the apprenticeship program and served as a mentor to Steven.
Through the program, inmates can receive training in one of 19 vocations, plus job and life skills such as interviewing, resume writing, and communication. In 2016, the Iowa Department of Corrections became an ApprenticeshipUSA Leader.
Steven completed the welding program, which includes 6,000 hours of on-the-job experience, while still incarcerated. During a job fair he was permitted to attend shortly before his release, he provided his resume to Winger Companies, an Ottumwa-based business that was seeking welders. Impressed by his skills, the company told him to contact them when he was out of prison; the job was his.