Bluegrass Regional Recycling Corporation

Career Development with Significance

Bluegrass Career Development Center

The Bluegrass Regional Recycling Corporation (BRRC) has a unique career development program that changes the lives of its participants. The BRRC is a 501-C-3 corporation that uses recyclable materials as the resource for an on-the-job training activity for the poor and incarcerated population of society. All recipients of the program are encouraged to advance through a series of job skills that qualify for “certified” personal and professional achievements. Hope is fostered as experience is gained: the confidence to succeed is developed and enhanced. The end result is an expectation of decent job placement when leaving the program and the BRRC is dedicated to that destiny.

The BRRC has just recently opened its first Career Development Center for the housing of correctional residents who are on their way towards a new beginning in life. The eighty-bed facility was designed and built by the BRRC to meet the requirements of the Kentucky Department of Corrections (DOC) and received its contract from the DOC in June of this year. The facility is conveniently located on land where the BRRC has established its recycling operations which processes materials for many of its county and city government recycling affiliates. The residents are introduced into the working environment at the adjacent training facility as they earn certifications in the recycling related industry. The earnings from their labor attribute to the monies that are sent back to the local governments participating in this cooperative marketing exercise which has returned more than $15 million from marketed materials in 19 years as a nonprofit venture.

The Bluegrass Career Development Center (BCDC) has developed its internal programming from years of experience in understanding the needs of the men who have come from incarceration and transitioning back into society. The staff is working 24/7 with the residents as they work to provide the necessary services to properly develop the opportunities for growth back into the community. As the men progress through the recycling training operations, they graduate into jobs that are assisting the needs of the local governments and nonprofit organizations of the area. The men are assessed as to their talents and resumes are drafted for the residents in preparation for job interviews with new partners that desire to participate in this “on-the-job” training program.

In addition to learning skills at the BRRC facility, the BCDC residents are working with our community partners in the areas of landscaping, painting, transit bus detailing, clerical assistance, janitorial services, governmental services and athletic training. Over thirty-eight percent of the residents are engaged in GED and advanced education courses. Physical fitness is encouraged with an on-site gym and local churches are partnering to assist with spiritual development. In addition to all this, the residents are receiving AA and NA meetings three nights weekly by BCDC certified partners, also from the local community.

The BRRC’s Career Development Program is dedicated to encouragement of the poor and humble in spirit so as to realize God’s call on their lives to be creative, active members of society, prepared to live in dignity while contributing their unique gifts to their community.

For additional information, please contact Mickey Mills, Executive Director, at 859-626-9117.