Job Skill Programs for Reentering the Workforce
Offering Second Chances to Returning Citizens Through Job Skill Building
Returning citizen populations are a valuable, yet vulnerable, workforce. Are you preparing them for successful reentry? Help ensure success with foundational job skills and a career readiness certificate that can provide a portable, valid credential.
Workforce Reentry Toolkit: Preparing Workforce Ecosystems for Returning Citizen Success
Unprecedented skill shortages in labor markets across the United States often intersect with a desire for justice system reform that provides pathways for returning citizens to thrive.
The toolkit includes:
- a framework of five Ps to help launch or improve reentry programs
- a guide to asset-framing—an important component of skills-based hiring
- strategies of inclusion for returning citizens to boost regional talent pipelines
Returning citizens are a vital part of the workforce ecosystem. Here are some conversations and examples of success from experts on reentry programs.
ACT Ready for Work Podcasts:
Episode 7 – Empowered Reentry and Essential Skills
Guest Tina Manus discusses the "Empowered Reentry Project," a 10-day program organized as a participatory action research project for nine returning citizens.
Episode 19 – Making the Most of Second Chances
Guest Shelle Jacobs shares new ways the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) are preparing returning citizens for steady employment upon release.
Episode 31 – Life-Changing Asset- and Skill-Based Solutions in Alternative Sentencing
Guest Charles Elliot, Presiding Circuit Judge in Morgan County, Alabama, shares the drug court's alternative sentencing model which thrives on integrating mental health.
Episode 32 – Preparing Workforce Ecosystems for Returning Citizen Success
Several contributors in this episode discuss a five Ps framework of partnerships, planning, preparation, pathways, and performance, with tips to launch or optimize regional reentry initiatives.
Videos:
How Does Corrections/Reentry Strengthen the Workforce Ecosystem?
Tammy Green, Director of Workforce and IT Innovation at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, discusses the important role that formerly incarcerated individuals can play in the workforce development ecosystem.
How Do Businesses Benefit from Employing Formerly Incarcerated Individuals?
Tammy Green discusses how businesses can benefit from employing justice-involved individuals and the role that ACT Workforce Solutions plays to bolster that success.
From Corrections to Careers
For Southeast Correctional Center in Missouri, reentry efforts go hand-in-hand with ACT® WorkKeys® and the National Career Readiness Certificate® (NCRC®).
“Prison education is a means of rehabilitating and redirecting. If you release someone with the same skills with which they came in, they're going to get involved in the same activities as they did before.” – Marymount Bedford Hills Program student
More Resources for Returning to the Workforce
Infographic
Research on Education and Rehabilitation for Inmates and Citizens Reentering the Workforce
Press Release
Federal Bureau of Prisons Selects ACT Workforce Solutions to be Part of its Career Readiness Program
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