In Garden Grove in October, Jason Gomez, 34, was asked to talk about himself. He had been recently released from jail after being convicted of robbery. Gomez sat in a county office meeting with a big shot from the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. At stake was the future of the program that had helped Gomez get a job after jail.

It’s called LEAP (Linking to Employment Activities Pre-release), which was established with a $500,000 grant to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Goodwill of Orange County, which not only has job certification courses, but also relationships with businesses to place future employees, runs the program.

Gomez was released at 3:30 a.m. on Aug. 19.

On Aug. 24, he started at White Bottle, a nutritional supplement company, in Irvine. At first, he worked in the warehouse. Now, he’s the supervisor of the warehouse.

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