Madeline Buckley

madeline.buckley@indystar.com

Schuyler Harrington has carefully saved money since high school to pay for Ivy Tech Community College classes in cash. The 29-year-old Butler-Tarkington man is close to completing his associate degree.

Over the years, Harrington has worked various jobs to support his slow march toward a degree. Some jobs came with a poor work environment, or barely enough money to continue with his studies.

Then Harrington received a call from Wallace Nash.

Nash patrols Butler-Tarkington streets for Indianapolis Ten Point Coalition, an anti-violence group that walks through city neighborhoods to help keep peace. As the sun set over 40th Street on a Tuesday night this month, Nash handed business cards to teenagers hanging out on a street corner, encouraging them to call him for summer employment opportunities.

Nash, 53, has made it his mission to help connect people in the neighborhood to job opportunities — a charge the lifelong Butler-Tarkington resident believes will ease the spurts of violence his neighborhood has experienced over the years.

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He hopes it is working. After all, Butler-Tarkington is in the midst of about a 250-day stretch with no homicides

A fateful encounter on one of his Ten Point patrols, Nash said, allowed him to help five neighborhood men secure jobs at a local steel company. There's Harrington, the 29-year-old student trying to put himself through college. And a 40-year-old man, who has served time in prison, hoping for a new start. Also hired was a lifelong union construction worker for whom jobs were drying up.

Years ago, a mentor from the neighborhood gave Nash the same opportunity. The father of a friend put Nash in charge of his rental properties, and helped him buy a house, a residence on Illinois Street he still owns.

"I had 10 brothers and sisters. We were one of the poorest families there," Nash said. "He changed my life."

On a recent Ten Point patrol, Nash met Todd Surinak, the recent owner of Reiss Structural and Architectural Products, a steel company that sits near 38th and Illinois streets in Butler-Tarkington.

Surinak, along with his wife Erin, bought the company about six months ago. They are in the process of expanding the factory work of the company, adding a second shift they needed workers to fill. Todd Surinak told Nash he wanted to hire workers from the neighborhood — anyone who needed an improved work situation, or wanted a second chance.

It didn't matter if a worker had a criminal record.

That's how LeRoy Jackson, who grew up in Butler-Tarkington, came to work at Reiss. He is a trained manufacturing engineer, but a record for felony possession has prevented him from working in his chosen field. Most recently, he made ends meet by working retail, and in restaurants.

"That's been my main thing, getting over that felony hurdle," Jackson said.

Harrington, the college student, also started his first shift at Reiss about two weeks ago. He works 40 hours per week, and is eligible for a 401(k) and health benefits. He is able to come to work in the afternoons, and take morning classes.

"I want to do criminal justice, maybe law school," Harrington said. "Well, first I've got to get this associate's," he added with a laugh.

Now, though, he is learning welding and metal fabrication, earning enough to live more comfortably while paying for classes.

"Some people go to school for welding, but we can teach it here if people are willing to learn," said Erin Surinak, co-owner of the company. "It takes a long time to develop and learn. We want to invest in kids and people in the neighborhood."

The company is still hiring, so Nash is still lining up potential workers for the Surinaks to meet. Nash said at least two of the workers hired so far by Reiss have felonies on their criminal record.

"You take a person who has nothing and put them in a position like this, and they are willing to learn," Nash said. "That's a great thing."

Jackson, who served time in Indiana and Texas, struggled to find consistent work in manufacturing. Retail employers tend to care less, he said.

At Reiss, he works an afternoon shift as a welder.

Call Star reporter Madeline Buckley at (317) 444-6083. Follow her on Twitter: @Mabuckley88.