Today, we’d like to introduce you to Tony Griffin.
Hi Tony, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Imagine for a moment making a mistake in your life. It’s pretty simple, right? Now imagine that because of that mistake, you have 38,000 letters of the legislature saying that you should not be forgiven for that mistake.
Furthermore, that mistake will impede your ability to find a place to live, find work, and support yourself and your family. You’ll forever wear a scarlet letter, people will look down upon you, and you will be stigmatized as a major problem in your community. This is where the story of Georgia Vocational Solutions begins.
Georgia Vocational Solutions was started of a critical need to help the person you just imagined. The State of Georgia’s criminal justice system ranks highest among the United States national average of prisoners per capita. Its recidivism rate (recidivism meaning the likelihood a person will recede to crime and return to jail or prison) reaches a nearly 50% rate.
In 2020, we created Georgia Vocational Solutions (GVS) as a passion project that is now evolving into a state-wide solution for lawmakers and community members to help disadvantaged workers, like prior convicted individuals and homeless veterans.
Let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
The road is what you make it. Anyone who’s ever driven on roads full of potholes knows that you may damage a little something along the road, but you have to keep going.
Needless to say, this has been a challenge for my family and me. Aside from the woes of building a nonprofit from the ground up with no start-up capital, the GVS program has a lot of taboos surrounding it.
A lot of red tape and bureaucracy comes with our program because we help (what many people would consider) the “villains” of society. Prior convicted people, offenders, felons, or whatever you call them, are simply people.
People who made mistakes. Mistakes as desperate and reckless as stealing food to support their family or some as heinous as a very bad felony crime. The stigma is the very same, there’s no explaining or forgiveness.
But in all that, we find our greatest accomplishment: advocating and supporting these individuals to better themselves by learning a skill, Landing a job, and supporting their families.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next, you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Here at GVS our sole focus is to train, employ, and empower disadvantaged workers by providing state-of-the-art vocational skills training and job readiness education to aid them in obtaining a livable wage job.
We pride ourselves on our job placement strategies and network providing training and employment opportunities for countless people across Georgia’s various counties. We do this for the sole purpose of reducing recidivism in our communities and helping individuals to sustain themselves through proper employment.
We’ve enjoyed collaborating with big brands such as Amazon, PSSI, and Georgia Power. Big shout-outs to the various counties who’ve supported our efforts in hosting community job fairs. Those counties are Clayton, Fulton, Newton, and several others.
Our program stands out the most to our target demographic; there’s nothing in Metro-Atlanta that supports our students like we do. We want those individuals who may be reading and feel hopeless and without a solution to know GVS has your back and we’ll help you if you want to be helped.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up in a little town called Kankakee, IL. I had humble beginnings, like many people from a small town near Chicago in the 70s. At 15, I became the number one neighborhood DJ, where I would DJ at skating rinks or school dances.
From there, I moved to the Southside of Chicago, where I attended the prestigious Mendel Catholic Preparatory High School for Boys. I was known to wear a full suit, tie, and carry a briefcase (which to me gave me a sense of notoriety). During this time, my father became a business owner, owning one of the largest record shops on the southside of Chicago, where I learned how to manage his retail store.
I’m what you would call a “serial entrepreneur.” I’ve always thrust myself into different businesses with the unique ability to impact my community.
From owning retail stores, being appointed general manager to most of my places of work, and even providing mortgage banking, I’ve done a lot in my life. I’ve received prestigious awards such as Business Man of the Year, IDS American Express Star Performer, and the YMCA Business Award.
Now my sights are building something for my family’s legacy. Seeing young men and women in Chicago affected by poverty and challenges often created by the criminal justice system, my vision and strong sense of compassion for the community is enabling me and my team to build what’s now called Georgia Vocational Solutions.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mygvs.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgiavocationalsolutions/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/georgiavocationalsolutions
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/georgia-vocational-solutions/
Image Credits
Fred (Family Thru Ties Production)
