Ernest Roberts (Courtesy picture)
Ernest Roberts, the primary PVJOBS government director to serve twenty years on this capability reworking lives by way of groundbreaking job applications for the at-risk group, died on November seventeenth. He died after an extended sickness at his residence in Operating Springs.
A pioneer who helped create transformative job applications in building to rehabilitate the lives of these in danger, Roberts has been the pillar of PVJOBS since its inception in 1998. He vigorously led the group from a burgeoning nonprofit to a nationwide mannequin for job applications for communities in danger.
Roberts was the primary managing director of PVJOBS. (Courtesy picture)
Roberts, as soon as thought of in danger himself due to his earlier incarceration and drug use, had a particular relationship with PVJOBS individuals. His willpower to succeed regardless of his previous impressed many. He later earned a bachelor’s diploma in psychology from USC earlier than taking the helm of the newly fashioned PVJOBS.
“No person understood the wants of the folks we serve at PVJOBS higher than Ernest. He was dedicated to making sure everybody had a second probability and was a job mannequin himself of how laborious work and dedication can result in lives that can be modified perpetually, ”stated Mary Taylor, presently government director of PVJOBS. “PVJOBS has grown and profitable due to its imaginative and prescient, and everybody who has come by way of our doorways on the lookout for a second probability owes them a substantial amount of thanks.”
Within the early years of the group, PVJOBS Board President Valerie Lynne Shaw started working with Roberts whereas serving as a commissioner for the Los Angeles Metropolis Division of Public Works. Shaw remembers Roberts as a passionate activist who tried to forge relationships with private and non-private sector executives to barter groundbreaking offers that led them to launch recruitment applications for his or her main growth tasks.
“Ernest Roberts was our personal community-based Renaissance man. He used his numerous skills to vary lives and enhance neighborhoods, ”Shaw stated. “He has used his life drive to assist hundreds of individuals, so it’s clear that his work lives on. It was a present to all of us. “
Roberts has over 25 years of engineering and building expertise. He as soon as owned and operated The Home Physician, a building and residential enchancment providers firm that employed solely these in danger. He was additionally President of the PACE Alumni Affiliation at West Los Angeles Faculty.
Upon listening to the information of Robert’s loss of life, the PVJOBS workers, board of administrators, and help group delivered a flood of heartfelt messages that acknowledged Roberts as a brave and compassionate advocate for rehabilitative work applications and a real pioneer of the motion.
“Ernest by no means noticed folks for what they had been, however for what they might turn out to be,” stated Taylor. “He spent his life serving to folks overcome their histories of poverty, substance abuse, incarceration and extra, realizing that by way of PVJOBS they might create new careers and a brand new life. He’s sorely missed, however his legacy will dwell on in each household he has touched and in each new profession he has sparked. “
