Photo / Courtesy of MAINEWORKS
Two MaineWorks employees at a construction site.
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2 hours ago
A helping hand: MaineWorks provides jobs to people in recovery and out of prison
Photo / Courtesy of MAINEWORKS
At MaineWorks, founder Margo Walsh is pictured with her three full-time staff members: From left: Wesley Salvucci, Walsh, Garrett Blake and Cecil Solaguren.
By Clarke Canfield
When Jason Lary was released from prison in 2023, he was in need of a job — and work clothes, boots, tools and a way to get around. He found what he needed at MaineWorks, a Portland-based staffing agency that is anything but run-of-the-mill.
Like most employment firms, MaineWorks places people in need of a job with companies in need of workers. But MaineWorks is different in that all of its employees are in recovery from alcohol and/or drug abuse or re-entering society from jail or prison. Besides providing people with jobs, MaineWorks provides support for housing, transportation, clothing, food, health care and other basic needs to help them succeed.
Lary turned to MaineWorks when he was placed in a halfway house in Portland after serving three years in federal prison for drug trafficking. MaineWorks got him a job working with concrete, sewer pipes, roads, walkways and drainage at an excavation site, while also providing him clothing, work boots, tools and other assistance.
MaineWorks even gave him rides to and from work. That was huge, since Lary is from the rural central Maine town of Hartland and had never navigated public transportation before.
Perhaps more importantly, MaineWorks gave Lary a sense of community and all that comes with it — dignity, hope for the future and the chance to succeed when the odds were stacked against him.
“I think I would’ve been looking for a job for a while longer,” he said, recalling when he entered the workforce in the fall of 2023. “Who knows how long it could’ve been, you know? Fresh out of prison? Not a lot of places want to hire you. Being in a halfway house you can only be out of the house at certain times. There were times I had to stay behind in the house for a meeting or something throughout the day. Most companies would’ve fired me. Or never even hired me.”
A second chance
MaineWorks has employed hundreds of people in recovery or straight out of incarceration since Margo Walsh founded the company in 2011. Walsh, 61, grew up in Maine, went to college in Massachusetts and worked as a recruiter for Goldman Sachs investment bank in New York after graduation. She later worked for human resources consulting firm Hewitt Associates in Connecticut.
Behind her outward career success and her infectious go-getter attitude, however, Walsh was hiding her own secret: She had a serious drinking problem. Her fondness for booze started when she was in high school and progressively got worse through the years. After moving back to Maine with her husband and two young children, she eventually sought help at the insistence of her sister, went into rehab and got sober.
From that experience and volunteering at the Cumberland County Jail as part of her recovery, the idea for MaineWorks was born — she would combine her know-how as a recruiter with her volunteer work with marginalized people in society. She started her company at a kitchen table in her Portland apartment after her divorce.
MaineWorks is a for-profit business with a social mission to compassionately support people in recovery or who were recently incarcerated to help them make better lives for themselves. The businesses she works with support that same mission.
From a business perspective, MaineWorks has done well. Walsh works with about a dozen construction companies in southern Maine, including Wright-Ryan, AlliedCook, Consigli, PC, Sheridan and Zachau. Last year she employed 133 people, who are paid a minimum of $20 an hour when working for those companies. Annual revenues have grown to more than $3 million. She has three full-time staffers in the office every day.
While all of that is good, the real satisfaction comes from helping people who are in a tough situation. Her support goes beyond providing simply a job. She and her sister, Elaine Walsh Carney, co-founded the United Recovery Fund, a nonprofit that raises money to provide transportation, housing support, health services and things like work clothing, food and other necessities to MaineWorks employees.
“Along with a good job,” Walsh said, “they get housing, help and hope.”
For the most part, her employees have done well on the job, with just a few reports of minor incidents. “We have to hire through discretion,” she said. “We aren’t drag-netting. It’s more like fly-fishing.”
Photo / Courtesy of MAINEWORKS
At MaineWorks, the morning campfire circle is a daily ritual.
Making an impact
Zachau Construction in Freeport has used MaineWorks for several years, and typically has half a dozen temporary MaineWorks employees at its job sites at any given time. Over the years, the company has hired more than half a dozen as permanent employees, and currently has two who have worked their way up to foremen with company vehicles, said Jeff Zachau, CEO.
MaineWorks provides an invaluable service for construction companies, who are always in needs of good workers, Zachau said.
“I think what Margo’s doing is certainly making an impact,” said Zachau, whose company has about 50 employees. “I would say a majority of the commercial construction sites in the greater Portland area probably have a few MaineWorks employees working on them on any given day.”
Beyond providing his company able-bodied workers, MaineWorks also gives Zachau satisfaction knowing he’s supporting people who need a helping hand. Giving back and being good community partners are among the company’s core values.
“We work very well with Margo and MaineWorks, and it certainly aligns with what we believe — in doing good,” he said.
Lary, 44, moved back to his hometown of Hartland after leaving the halfway house in Portland last year. But he’s still employed by MaineWorks, working for a construction company on a large project in Norridgewock.
MaineWorks also helped land a job for his 20-year-old son — who recently became a father and is in recovery — on the same project. Every day, Lary drives himself and his son to and from the work site.
As grateful as he is for the job and other support he has received from MaineWorks, he’s also thankful for the hope and sense of belonging it has brought him.
What stood out for him as much as anything when he was still in the halfway house were the so-called “circles” that MaineWorks holds each week. Every Friday at 6 a.m., MaineWorks employees get together around a fire pit behind the MaineWorks offices to share stories and build relationships. Walsh usually leads the gatherings.
“It is awesome. Even if you’ve had a stressful week or something, I’ve never left there without having a smile on my face,” he said. “Margo was usually there and gives a little speech, everybody gets to know each other a little bit, hear each others’ testimony sometimes. It’s overwhelming.”
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