ORANGE, Texas — A company in Orange is opening its doors to provide free office space for employees who will be out of a job soon.
Last month, both International Paper and the Invista plant announced they were closing, leaving hundreds of Southeast Texas employees without work.
RELATED: Imminent closure of Invista facility in Orange will eliminate more than 200 jobs by end of 2024
The Office Downtown, located at 701 W. Division St. in Orange, has rentable office space that serves as a professional environment for any business venture.
"One of our renters recently has been a Youtuber and just needed a professional space that was quiet where he could do what he needed to do," Owner Paul Dickerson said. "We also have had folks that would come in to maybe do videos and voice overs."
Now, they're offering spaces for free to help International Paper and the Invista employees put their professional lives back together.
The Office Downtown is an off shoot of the Orange Stationer, which is close to Lamar State College Orange.
Dickerson tells 12News that he is fully dedicated to giving the laid-off employees a chance to find new opportunities.
They have 1GB internet speed, a conference room with monitors and a wide-angle camera and private offices that can be accessed at any time of the day.
"For somebody that really needs to get work done, this is the place," Dickerson said.
Dickerson knows many of the employees affected by the closures personally through his other company, Orange Stationer.
"Both Invista and International Paper have been customers of ours, but we deal with the people directly, locally, and we know a lot of the people there," he said.
When the closures were announced, Dickerson and his wife knew they wanted to lend a hand.
"So, when it came time to see if we could do something to help, we thought the services that we have here from whether it be day use space for somebody to get out of the house or separate from where they might be working, so that they could actually put together their resume, do job searches," Dickerson said. "So we just wanted to do something to help people. That's really what it's all about."
Anyone interested must show proof that they worked at either International Paper or Invista.
The free office space will be offered until the end of the year.