Martin Countian Justin Marcum Steps on New Career Path with Help from eKART

Justin Marcum stands next to an excavator at the Martin County Road and Bridge Department near Inez, where he’s worked full-time since June.

Justin Marcum just completed a long work day outside as he returns to the Martin County Road and Bridge Department near Inez. He drops a couple of radios on a charger for the next day’s work and takes a breath before talking about his job and how he got to where he is now.  

Marcum has worked for the county since June as a full-time operator. He spends his days as part of a crew pulling ditches, installing drain pipes, and repairing road breaks. He’s also working to build his skills on pieces of heavy equipment including an excavator and dozer, and hopes to begin learning a grader soon.

“I’m getting better all the time, and while I’m here I want to learn every piece of equipment here,” he says.

Marcum is on a career path now, and it’s one he says he wouldn’t be on had he not heard about a program called Eastern Kentucky Addiction Recovery and Training (eKART) that helps people like himself obtain employment and get on a path to not only a job, but a viable career.

eKART is an initiative of Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP), Inc., that works with local drug courts and other agencies to bridge the gulf between recovery and productive participation in the workforce by providing individuals with valuable career, training, and supportive services, while actively cultivating transformational job opportunities. 

Marcum first heard about eKART from his case manager a few months after entering the Martin County Drug Court, which followed years of struggling with substance use. He heard that eKART could help him find employment, and quickly contacted eKART Job Entry Retention Support Specialist Jimmie Wilson.

“I emailed her and asked if she knew of any jobs,” Marcum says. “She gave me a list of people to apply for, and she told me if I knew any locally that I could apply and sign up.”

At the time, the Martin County Road and Bridge Department had an opening for an operator. Marcum told Wilson about it, and soon after he was presented with an opportunity to begin work-experience for the county, which meant eKART paid his wages while he began working and learning a new trade.

eKART supported Marcum during the work-experience period for three months, which not only gave him an opportunity to learn the job, but also to show his supervisors that he could be a dependable employee.

“It gave me the opportunity to prove that I was willing to come out every day and work,” he says.

Marcum’s work experience ended in March, after which Wilson was able to connect him with a contract job working on a local Walmart’s remodel to ensure he continued working and met the requirement with Drug Court to work at least 20 hours per week. But by June he would receive a call with an offer to begin working with the county as a full-time operator with the road department—an offer Marcum says he was happy to accept and one he doesn’t think he would have received without the assistance Wilson provided through eKART.

“I think it would have been very tough without Jimmie,” he says. “When you’re trying to get a job somewhere that’s something other than minimum wage, they want people with experience. With eKART I was able to prove that I was willing to work. It helped me tremendously.”

Marcum is now spending his days continuing to learn on the job and is still receiving support from eKART and Wilson, who is helping ensure he continues to receive ongoing supportive services including work clothes and a gas card when needed.

“I’ve been clean for over a year now,” Marcum adds, “and for the first time in my life I’ve got my own home, my own vehicle, a full-time job, and I didn’t have any of those until I started getting help from eKART.”

To learn more about eKART and available services, visit ekcep.org/ekart.

EKCEP, a nonprofit workforce development agency headquartered in Hazard, Ky., serves the citizens of 23 Appalachian coalfield counties. The agency provides an array of workforce development services and operates the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, which provide access to more than a dozen state and federal programs that offer employment and training assistance for jobseekers and employers all under one roof. Learn more about us at http://www.ekcep.org, http://www.jobsight.org and http://www.facebook.com/ekcep.