I help people find jobs.
I've been at this since 2003. The people I serve are first fired, last hired. The reasons are numerous and in most cases they make sense.
The Great Recession was devastating to the people on the bottom of the economic food chain and I developed a great deal of respect for the people who kept pushing in such a horrible job market.
Making it through that tough time lead me to what I am about to do tomorrow.
People with criminal backgrounds are among the easiest candidates to write off. I've ran in to enough 22 year old recent graduates in HR to know how difficult it is to relate your experience to someone who's body of work consists of an internship and a degree. It's more than embarrassing to share your life story to someone who has just started their own.
I have nothing fancy to say, just keep reading...
About 8 months ago while sitting on my deck I had an idea to put on a job fair. Putting on job fairs is kind of my thing.
This particular job fair was only going to be for people with criminal backgrounds...
It's been done before, many prisons in the area hold job fairs and resource fair and things like that but I wasn't aware of anything like this happening in my state. I deal with many employers who will hire people with backgrounds but this was an opportunity to bring employers in who were aware that they were only going to speak with individuals who had backgrounds.
This was easier than I expected.
The other side is getting people who have backgrounds to come in and talk about who they are as workers rather than who they are as felons. Ugh, there are so many things the government does so poorly and transitioning people from prison to the public is one of them. Good intentions but alarmingly bad practices.
So this is going to happen tomorrow...
People with felonies from the metro area with the worst employment racial disparities in the country are going to come together to meet with some of the larger employers in the state to have a conversation about working.
Nobody is going to shame anyone for their hiring practices, nobody is going to be denied the chance to apply because of their background. What is going to happen is American businesses are going to do what they do best and that is bring on a labor force to make more money and that is a beautiful thing.
This is not an new thing all together but it is relatively new in our area where most of these events happen in a controlled environment. My hope is that we do this well enough to do it again year after year and that we can change some perceptions. To have candidates be more trusting of businesses to do what's best for the business and their employees. To have employers take a hard look at their hiring policies and recognize that having a background doesn't mean you can't work.
This is the proudest moment in my career because I know what this means to people who have backgrounds and the chance to bring in employers who are at least willing to have the conversation is something that needs to be recognized.