With 20 years in the career academy business, Blue Jacket, Inc. continues to provide training and opportunities to anyone with a barrier who is striving to earn gainful employment.
The organization was launched in 2005 as an independent nonprofit to address a critical need to provide training, employment and vocational direction to ex-offenders returning home from prison to the Greater Fort Wayne community.
In 2012, Blue Jacket expanded its mission to serve anyone considered to be a disadvantaged candidate to employment, offering hope and a sense of worth to those being served, whether someone is in need of a first or even a second chance at achieving self-sufficiency.
Here, WBOI’s Julia Meek (WE) discusses the evolution with Tony Hudson, its founder and CEO and how its success benefits the entire community.
Event Information:
Fort Wayne Light Fest at the Fort Wayne Zoo
Nov. 17 through Dec. 31
Exclusive early-elf discounts are available until Nov. 9
Find a complete calendar of events and purchase tickets at the FW Lightfest website.
Learn more about the Career Academy and other programs at the Blue Jacket website.
Here is a transcription of our conversation:
Julia Meek: Tony Hudson, welcome.
Tony Hudson: Thank you.
Julia Meek: Okay, 20 years in the second chances business, can you even believe it? Does it, in fact, seem like only yesterday?
Tony Hudson: It does. Yep, it has gone incredibly fast, Julia and I've been incredibly grateful.
Julia Meek: And so back in that day, Tony, what did you and yours set out to do? What was your original mission?
Tony Hudson: Our original mission was to provide people coming home from prison with the capacity to be able to earn their seat at the table through employment.
Julia Meek: So, it was a literal second chance to join society, be employed.
Tony Hudson: Yes, we were a nonprofit born out of county government for the purpose of basically serving the reentry court initiative.
Julia Meek: What a job? How did times and attitudes of that day drive or change your own community that was being served?
Tony Hudson: Well, I think being able to allow someone who wanted to prove their value, not just to an employer, but to their family, their friends, their neighbors, their church communities, they were not given the capacity or the opportunity.
So Blue Jacket stepped in to fill that gap. And then we realized eight years into our existence that there were other individuals who did not want to go out and commit a crime, [chuckles] to come back home from prison to receive our services.
And so, we open the door says, serve anyone with a barrier to employment to prove their same value.
Julia Meek: Actually, prevent the cycle from starting.
Tony Hudson: Yeah, yes.
Julia Meek: Just starting out, did you realize that that whole second level, that second shelf of folks certainly at risk in a different sort of way, even existed?
Tony Hudson: When we were going through the incorporation process Julia, we realized that we were being approached by a number of other nonprofits, in shelters, at-risk homes.
Name it, we were being approached because they were acknowledging the Workforce Development System back in the day, this was just after 911 you know, it was 2001 to 2003 when we were creating our pre-employment training that was being piloted in county government.
So, while we were incorporating, we acknowledged, someday, in the future, we're going to have to open up the doors to support people who do not have a criminal past. They have some other barrier to entry, number one.
And then number two, we never realized that we are going to be a full-fledged social enterprise going into business providing goods and services to the community for the hiring of those same people that were trying to impact their lives.
So, we wrote those in the articles of incorporation with the best hope and intention that we had opened the doors to other people as well as open up businesses. And we've achieved that...
Julia Meek: Again, I'll ask, can you even believe that all of that could happen and happen in just these few years?
Tony Hudson: Hmm. It felt like a century [both laugh] at times, it was the hardest thing that I acknowledged that I think I'll ever do in my career, but the most rewarding. And it has gone quick, but some of those seasons were pretty difficult.
Julia Meek: Thank you for being frank and for sticking with it all these years, of course. Now the biggest challenges and stigmas back then, what were they?
Tony Hudson: Well, one of the biggest stigmas was that here I was a 28-year-old that started the organization at an incorporation that launched officially when I was 31, I believe. So, I had a youthful appearance that was a barrier for myself to get over.
But the biggest stigma was that we were serving people with serious and violent offenses. We were helping them prove their value. That big stigma in itself was a difficult one, and so how do you overcome that stigma? Because our target customer base wasn't just our community, it was the employers that hire within our community.
And the employer has to trust us first. They have to trust me, Tony, as well as all of those employees that are dispatched to say, hey, trust us here at the organization that we have done our full vetting process. We have evaluated, we have trained, we have supported, and in that you can also trust this person whom we now trust.
Though we all acknowledge that past behavior predicts future behavior. We acknowledge that we call it out as it is. Trust takes time and effort, and so as we are putting our integrity, our reputation out on the line to be able to tell that employer, hey, trust this person.
We can't predict human behavior. We can't say that it's going to be a home run. But we can tell you that, based on what we have observed so far in the last month or hundreds of hours we've been around this person, that they're going to be a good fit for your company.
And so that stigma has eroded over time, but at the beginning, it was a really tough sell. Hey, would you hire this person? Oh, by the way, they have 17 felony convictions, and you should trust them. [chuckles] That's, that's a tough stigma.
Julia Meek So what came next? And how could you, how did you grow once you got that reputation going?
Tony Hudson Well, you know, I think that over time, those who do business with us, the employers that will actually hire through our staffing service, the companies that will hire our cleaning service, the patrons that will purchase stuff through our retail stores or go in and buy a coffee at our coffee shop.
Those are all entities that, over time, realize that our word is always good and we fulfill what we say we're going to fulfill corporately. And so, when we have built this reputation of trust, it makes it easier or more palatable for someone to say, yeah, I went through the blue jacket program. Will you please hire me in this position?
That at least adds credibility, and it adds a nice positive mark on their resume or application as well.
Julia Meek: Was it a tough sell, looking back?
Tony Hudson: You know, Julia, I will tell you, you know that tough sell is still there. It's prevalent. It's all the time. The craziest thing in the world is that 83% of the people on staff are either Blue Jacket clients themselves, or have Blue Jacket-like experiences, meaning life experiences, where they should have been a blue jacket client, but we hired them because they come from an estranged history.
So here, the leadership, 83% are making decisions because we've been there, done that, and they often have to fight that same stigma, even to this day, though, we're not an advocacy program or a social service that provides a service to anyone with a barrier to employment.
However, if we realize that this is a company that is not hiring with the best intention to be able to serve those individuals that are going out trying to put their best foot forward, we'll call it into an account immediately, and we'll inform them, hey, we're going to call you in rather than call you out.
We're going to call you in and try to explain to you what needs to be corrected. And if you don't want to correct that, then we'll no longer do business with you. And that's exactly how my staff have been able to align our corporate values, our philosophy, with one of good reputation and integrity.
And I think that's to be lauded, that they have the courage to be able to do that, stand nose to nose with the company that says, I have the capacity to hire hundreds of your people. However, I may have an issue with hiring this person, and we'll go to bat for that one person.
Julia Meek: And that's how you have built your own, galvanized your own street cred, which represents the whole company.
Tony Hudson: Mmhmm.
Julia Meek: That's really quite something. Now let's go to how did you grow your assets, starting with your physical space over there on South Calhoun Street?
Tony Hudson: Well, I I'm gonna name drop. It started with Lynne Gilmore, and she had faith that I'd be able to move from one location to another. The AWS Foundation had this physical asset at the 2800 block of South Calhoun, and we were looking for space to expand.
Our clothing bank was swelling, that we decided we would need to turn into a clothing store so that we could hire our same clients to sell those clothes. But our classroom space was minimal. We needed more space.
And so that physical asset of 2800 block at South Calhoun has now doubled in size. We have done a substantial amount of work to be able to shine a beautiful light on that corridor, and that's part of our long-term plan.
Julia Meek: Meanwhile, as your role did continue to evolve, and that client base expands to include new populations at risk or marginalized, otherwise voiceless, what came next and why?
Tony Hudson: So, what came next, as we moved to the new structure on South Calhoun, we corporately realized that to be federally funded, with it was a Department of Labor, Department of Justice, a few other grants, was restricting the capacity for us to accept anyone and everyone through our front door whom we wanted to serve.
So we have always had a desire to turn no one away who wants the help, ever, regardless of their literacy level, their economic level, even if they have no physical address, we'll still serve you. If you're living in a tent, we'll still serve you. If you haven't graduated from elementary school.
Doesn't matter to us if you have an intellectual, cognitive disability, a physical disability, you have multiple felony convictions, it does not matter. You just want to prove your value. You want to be a productive human. And humans are made to be productive and to be able to hinder that because of some restriction in a grant or a contract, hindered us.
And so, turning the ship into the wind was the most difficult thing that we could have ever done, and we made the corporate decision in 2011, making the full switch by 2015, becoming completely independent from those funding streams.
Now with a hybrid of earned income through social enterprising, foundations and these fundraisers that we have year-round. And of course, another huge change was in 2014 when that same person, Lynne Gilmore, said, hey, I saw what you did on the Calhoun campus.
You have a plethora of human resource, and we have approached a few other disability-serving organizations. But would you be interested in accepting Fantasy of Lights as a major fundraiser?
And so in 2014 we took about seven months deliberating if this is something we wanted to take on, because failing was unacceptable. Failing would mean the demise of the nonprofit itself, at the Fantasy of Lights.
And so. We wanted to make sure we were all in and eventually moving away from 100% volunteer-based to then become 100% employment-based, hiring blue jacket clients to set up, host and tear down Fantasy Lights became that game changer for us.
Julia Meek: A great game changer. And putting it in context, Tony, how does your work and success in this field compare to other cities our size or larger?
Tony Hudson: Well, our organization constantly gauges how well we're doing, matched up with other nonprofits in larger cities. The larger cities are going to be Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York, specifically. And there's some really great ones in Seattle and the Portland area out west.
And we realize, though our size and magnitude is likely not as large as some of the cities, there are some nonprofits that are similar size to blue jackets in Chicago, in the Detroit Flint area. But our success rates kick everyone's butts [both laugh] in the larger metropolitan areas.
You know, we're gauging how many of those individuals that complete our process are able to get employment quickly and what does that look like? Well, our employment rate, well, right now it's hovering at 85% of the people who go through our program are employed within three months. That's fantastic. And are like nonprofits around the country are not the same.
Julia Meek: So happy to hear you're out in front and as we reflect on two decades of achievements which have been many and quite impressive, how would you rank, say, your three biggest, baddest successes?
Tony Hudson: [chuckles} Well, I mentioned one of the three baddest, having 83% of our decision makers our people.
Julia Meek: Uh-huh, big and bad!
Tony Hudson: It's, you know, pretty amazing, because they have an uncanny way of being able to call me out and call the rest of the community out in a beautiful way. I would say the second thing is being able to transitionally hire people at all of our social enterprises.
So we have six social enterprises, including the Fantasy of Lights and hundreds of people are hired transitionally for 30. 60, 90 days. Just depends on when that person is ready to transition into a full-time career-based job. So, we are here taking the risk hiring those individuals.
They could be struggling with mental illness or something situational, or they could just need a leg up, just for a moment. They get a wage, and they get experience, and they get an opportunity to build a resume. That is number two, the biggest, baddest thing, I would say, is that we can hire so many people in-house.
You come to our thrift store, you're gonna meet a blue jacket person. And I can't say the same thing for any other thrift store in Fort. Wayne, or at, well, around the country. Not all thrift stores went into business so that it would become an affirmative business, specifically targeting the people that are trying to change their life trajectory to provide the goods and services to the community.
So that's number two. And I would say number three is, I'm partial, but it would be the Tall Rabbit Cafe. I just love that coffee shop on South Calhoun. [chuckles]
Julia Meek: It's nearby. You can stop by every day for some coffee, but over and above that, yes, it has to make your heart sing for everything that's going down there.
Tony Hudson: It does to us, Julia, the Tall Rabbit is the bookend to the north, and Blue Jacket offices is the bookend to the south, and everything in between is our focus, and we hope to move everything home to Calhoun Street, because Calhoun is our home.
We have sunk our roots deep, and we have a very vested interest, not just with our board and our staff leadership, it's with all the business owners along the Calhoun corridor. We want it to be working with the City of Fort Wayne, working with the consultants that are coming in studying it as a retail corridor.
We hope that it is a cultural and culinary destination, but also that we are able to continue to exacerbate the fine arts through our medium, through our influence, because I think the expression of stories through the fine arts is super important for our community.
Julia Meek: And speaking of those fine arts and the artcentricity that's all over that corridor, thanks to you already, it's a big part of your own life. What place does it hold up close on personal at Blue Jacket, and why is it vital to your mission there?
Tony Hudson: Well, I am fine artist by trade. I have a couple degrees in fine art, and I thought I was going to retire, you know, rocking on the front porch with a pipe in my mouth teaching fine art at a local university.
I tried it, and I guess I didn't like it very much. I wasn't very good at it, and I admire the people who are incredibly good at it. So Fine Art has always been part of my heart. I married a fine artist. I have a child who's a fine artist, and I am incredibly grateful.
And I will say, one of the greatest things that came out of all of this for me running blue jacket was being able to state that there was this Shawnee warrior who walked our grounds 250 years ago, along with this Miami warrior.
Chief Blue Jacket became friends with Chief Little Turtle, and they together led the unification of tribes, a confederacy of tribes against the westward bound United States Army. And to be able to bring him honor, we just wanted to throw together as much money as we could to be able to pay one of the greatest sculptors here in Fort, Wayne, and that was Sayaka Ganz.
And in that she recruited some of the descendants who were genealogists, who understand what Chief Blue Jacket would have looked like. And from that, we've established an incredibly strong relationship with many of the Blue Jacket family members, who are Eastern Shawnee, who are loyal Shawnee, and part of those tribes out in Oklahoma, and some here in Indiana and Kentucky area.
And in that having it's almost like a blood relative, we've been somewhat adopted by that family, the Blue Jacket family, and I never imagined that coming. I never imagined going to a powwow and being part of the Blue Jacket reunion.
And all of these family members from all over the country descended at this powwow in Miami, Oklahoma. I was invited to be a part of that. And I can't think of another time that brought me more, I guess, pride to be a part of this movement.
Julia Meek: What a connection and what a metaphor for everything that your organization Blue Jacket stands for.
Tony Hudson: We hope we give honor to a great chief who did so well.
Julia Meek: And meanwhile, you are going strong this milestone year, including artcentrically. How did this year's Second Chances Art Show go for you and yours?
Tony Hudson: Well, the Second Chance Art Exhibit is a unique and brilliant show of storytelling through the eyes and hands of 16 artists telling success stories of 16 clients. And it was dreamy.
It was so impactful; financially, we did so much better than our goal, and we raised quite a bit of money. And it was, well, Julia, you were there. It was electric. It was magnificent in attendance. And I've been to limitless art shows in my time. I've been to galas.
I've been to art openings in many major cities, especially here in Fort Wayne, where my heart lives. And I don't think that I'll ever see a more diverse crowd of human beings gathered in one area, there on South Calhoun.
Julia Meek: And the art is always incredible this year being no exception.
Tony Hudson: Mmhmm.
Julia Meek: But that's not all for this year. [both chuckle] We hear that this year's Fantasy of Lights will be twice as bright. Can you illuminate us on that?
Tony Hudson: [chuckles] Absolutely! You know, Julia, the craziest thing in the whole world happened when we needed to move our Christmas Village, which was giving our patrons the opportunity to get out of their car, get some free hot cocoa, shop some patrons, and then go visit with Santa for free.
That opportunity is not provided around the city and country very often. And so we always thought that that was a nice value-added, and we needed to move that Christmas Market to deeper in our route for safety and security and a lot of other reasons. So Frankie Pavilion number one, the big and close pavilion, which is also in the zoo's overflow parking, was going to be consumed with a Vendor Marketplace that's going to be four times the size.
And it wasn't a very far stretch for us to say, you know what, the zoo in deference, has been waiting patiently to enter into the evening holiday light scene. They knew how important the Fantasy of Lights was to Blue Jacket to be able to fund our job training initiative.
So, they rescinded their request to be able to work in the evenings. If we rewind about 31 years ago, it used to be in the zoo. So, when I approached Rick Schuiteman and his team, they jumped at the opportunity. They said, Absolutely, thank you for inviting us in. We're going to have a walking route too.
So, our patrons can choose to go through Fantasy of Lights, get out of their car, visit our new Santa experience. Still see Santa for free and then go through the zoo. They have a separate fee structure, but we call this the Fort Wayne Light Fest, because the drive-through was already the largest nonprofit drive-through in the country.
Now the largest nonprofit drive-through and walk-through light event. It's just going to be...
Julia Meek: Fantasy.
Tony Hudson: [laughs] Yeah, it's going to be fantastic!
Julia Meek: Wonderful. Are we done for the year, going forward after that?
Tony Hudson: Well, going forward, we want to continue to push forward with raising money for our initiatives and to be able to turn the ship into the wind and be financially solvent, and in some ways insulated from the...
Julia Meek: The storm?
Julia Meek: Yeah, from the storm other nonprofits are dealing with right now, and my friends and contemporaries, they're losing a lot of sleep from that, in that, inviting people in to be able to hear the stories, not just through the medium of fine art, but also the Chief Blue Jacket celebration.
And what we do is honor an employer, a volunteer and a financial supporter at the Chief Blue Jacket celebration. We bring in some Nashville artists. Dr Stephen Phillipp is a huge supporter of making that happen, and we're really excited about doing that.
And of course, the Mighty Matchup and a few other fundraising activities; we're always pushing the envelope, and that next envelope is seeing what we can do on the Calhoun corridor.
Julia Meek: Good luck. And now you are not one to rest on your laurels, in fact, you're not one to rest at all, Tony [chuckles] so what is the most important thing all of this odyssey has taught you about the community you love and about the importance of second chances.
Tony Hudson: Mmm, what I've learned about our community is that so often when you tell the story, people find themselves in that story. So, whether we're sitting across the table from a hiring manager or an employer or it's a foundation wanting to provide support, or it's a patron wanting to go through and just see a beautiful bedazzling light show.
They may find themselves in that same scenario, in their mind or in their memory or in their future, and say, I know I've done wrong. I've violated someone's trust as well. I know what it's like to have to earn my trust back, or I know what it's like to be looked down upon, not because of my behaviors, but because of the skin I was born into, or the disability I was born with.
And I do support this organization what they're trying to champion. So, the longer we are in existence, the more I see this community embracing that I could be there too, and I love to watch the people spread their wings and do beautiful things.
Julia Meek: Tony Hudson is founder and CEO of Blue Jacket, Inc. Tony, it has been a pleasure to track your mission, your progress and your story; blessings on the next 20 years and thank you for your work.
Tony Hudson: And thank you for your work, Julia.
