Kelan Bilal of Excaliber Barber Grooming Lounge is seen with Mayor Jamael Tito Brown and about 45 other people from a multitude of government agencies, such as Mahoning County Job and Family Services, Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and Ohio Means Jobs, who will offer help to the community during a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 18 Hope Conference at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown. The city and its Community Initiative to Reduce Violence are organizing the free event. (Staff photo / Ed Runyan)

YOUNGSTOWN — About 45 people working for a multitude of organizations are finalizing plans for an annual free event, called the Hope Conference, which will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 18 at the Covelli Centre.

The organizations will try to help people with legal aid, clothing, health care, sober living, utilities, children’s services, job training and employment. Their representatives attended a workshop Wednesday at the Covelli Centre.

Guy Burney, head of Youngstown’s Community Initiative to Reduce Violence, said the annual resource summit is dedicated to people in recovery, in re-entry after incarceration, and people in need of support services. It is the largest resource event held in the city each year. The city is a sponsor. Hundreds of citizens attend the conference and find assistance, Burney said.

Among the agencies providing assistance at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Mahoning County Job and Family Services, Legal Aid and agencies that assist with healthcare and education.

Burney said the event will offer services to people who need help getting their driver’s license active, finding a job and otherwise improving their circumstances — all of which can bring hope to someone who is hopeless.

He said the really helpful thing about the conference is to “have all of our agencies in one space that provides real connections to the help and breaks down the barriers the people returning to our society — or people who are recovering or just people who need — face.”

For example, the BMV will have people there who can help a person release the holds on their driver’s license because of tickets or fines, Burney said.

“They will actually give the person the information they need to get their license back in a legal status,” he said.

“We will also have folks from child support from Job and Family Services, who will right-size cases for men and women,” he said. By that, Burney said he means when a person is in prison, their cases don’t stop. So when he or she gets out, their sanctions through child support can stack up.

“We understand they have no way of making income, and those cases grow and grow. Understanding that, they kind of get a new start and get on the right track,” Burney said. “If you don’t pay your child support, your problems with your driver’s license just keep piling up.” So child support can “right-size” the amount of trouble a person has — an amount that the person can handle.

“That way you can take are of your kids,” he said. “They can do it on site, so you can walk out with something that is viable. Employers will be here. The employers we will have are particularly interested in hiring people who have issues with their background. They know this going in,” he said.

An assortment of agencies will staff the event, including mental health agencies, “pretty much anything you can think of,” he said.

Before the Wednesday workshop began, Burney invited the agency officials to gather for a photo, and several told news reporters about the type of help they will provide.

He said attorneys will be present who can help with people’s legal issues without cost. Instead of trying to make appointments with all of the types of agencies, a person “comes in, in one day, and get through a lot of barriers, so they have hope to continue,” Burney said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

These many and varied agencies typically do not reside in the same building, so visiting all of them could take a long time the traditional way, especially if the person has transportation issues, Burney said.

Getting to the Covelli Centre should not be hard because the Western Reserve Transit Authority provides free rides. People who do not speak English as their primary language can get help from an interpreter, he said.

Ohio Means Jobs, the state employment agency, will have computers at the site to help people sign up for employment or training.

Kelan Bilal, owner of Excalibur Barber Grooming Lounge in Youngstown and Girard, said his company will be providing grooming services.