COLUMBUS, MS – Courtesy of the Dispatch and Slim Smith

Sharon Jones, originally of Queens, NY, moved to Columbus long ago to settle down and start a family. Fast forward many years of hard work later, and she founded Paroled2Pride, an organization that has helped hundreds of former inmates to turn their lives around and rejoin the workforce. They became an official 501(c)(3) organization in 2007. Recently, Jones was among those honored with a “Earnest Brown Good Change Award” for her efforts and those of her largely-volunteer staff by Columbus Major Keith Gaskin. P2P carefully screens applicants, matching them up with jobs.

Her first success story came before she former P2P. It involved a man who “was getting out of prison and, like so many people, was having a hard time finding a job,” Jones said. “God laid it on my heart to help him get a job at the hotel I was working at. I told my husband and he said, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t risk it.’ My in-laws told me the same thing. I called my mom and told her, ‘I can’t get rid of the feeling that I should hire him. God keeps telling me that.’ She told me to obey God and always remember my brother, how hard it was for him to get employed.” She convinced her boss to give him a chance – “He worked 11pm to 7am, for 14 years and never missed a day,” Jones said. “The program evolved from there.” She has been working with Best Western ever since to make jobs available to these folks.

“It’s so humbling after the loss of my brother and my mom,” she went on to say. “They are the driving force behind what I do through Jesus. God has called me to this work and I’m grateful.”

Please click here for the original article: https://cdispatch.com/news/community-profile-personal-experience-led-to-creation-of-paroled2pride/