About this Resource
In this resource, Supporting People with Justice System Involvement to Succeed in Employment Social Enterprise, we outline key lessons we’ve learned from the 130+ ESEs we’ve supported that serve people with justice system involvement.
If you are an organization that is considering working with this community, a workforce organizations or other nonprofit that focuses on the justice impacted community, and/or a company that is considering fair chance employment, then this resource is for you!
This resource would not be possible without the support of a wide range of collaborators, many of whom bring direct lived experience with the justice system. We encourage organizations to view this lived experience as Lived Expertise, as we believe that those closest to the problems are also closest to the solution.
A special thank you to thank you to Bill Heiser and the teams at Carry the Vision; Center for Employment Opportunities; CityLab Professional; Conbody; Defy Ventures; EMERGE Connecticut, Inc.; Fortune Society; Nearby Consulting; Qism Consulting; RecycleForce; The Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program; and Terri Feeley Consulting for support and contributions to this memo.
Inside you can find:
- Humanizing language to describe people with justice system involvement
- Intersectionality considerations
- Government programs that support this community
- Common barriers faced
- Services to support barrier removal
- Case studies from our Employment Social Enterprises
- Program design considerations
- Considerations for businesses and industries well-positioned to support this community
- Metrics to evaluate the success of your program
- Lessons for the business community