A local organization that works to help individuals who have served jail or prison time find employment held an informational meeting at the Golden Harvest Food Bank’s Community Room.
Called the Inclusive Hiring Huddle, it was presented by ReNforce, a non-profit organization that works with those previously incarcerated who need employment and businesses that need employees.
“The Inclusive Hiring Huddle is just a space for businesses and community organizations to come together, to huddle, to have a conversation with myself as the coach and a couple of other leaders that’s doing this work to talk about, what can we do to make Augusta win,” ReNforce founder, Charlotte Garnes explained to ABD. “How can that look to where at the end of this game that everybody comes out on top, just as impacted individuals are employed, they’re able to reduce that recidivism.”
Garnes said in April, which is Second Chance Month, ReNforce sponsored a conference which was to include a hiring fair. She said, at the last minute, several businesses that had committed to participating pulled out, saying they don’t hire formerly incarcerated individuals.
For Garnes, who had served 46 months in federal prison in connection to a Medicaid fraud case, that stung.
“I am what people consider a returning citizen,” she said. “I pay my taxes. I own property here in Augusta. I own a business here in Augusta. I spend my money in Augusta. So, for businesses to say that I support by my dollars, and not only just myself, but other justice-impacted individuals, we support those businesses, and for them to say we don’t hire those people, that hurt a lot. So, for me, I wanted to have an open, honest conversation and a dialog, and that’s what we’re going to do today.”
One of the people who attended the Wednesday huddle was David Mew of Manhood Tour. His organization works to help men find resources to learn what he calls “Adult 101”.
“So, we keep putting resources in our toolkit, so we can be better men and be better fathers, be better role models, be better in the community all together,” he said. “We’ve actually partnered with Richmond County State Court. We have four judges that believe in us and believe in our mission, believing that we can change these men’s perspectives and their lives, so they’re better and reduce recidivism. We don’t want them going back to jail.”
That is also something that motivated Garnes to create ReNforce.
She likened re-entry into society for formerly incarcerated individuals to being handed bricks. A brick for employment, a brick for housing, a brick for basic necessities like food and clothing, until the weight of the bricks becomes unbearable.
“We’re layering people with those bricks. So, you’re not giving a person an equitable opportunity just to apply for a job,” she said. So, in that person’s mind, ‘I got to survive because I don’t want to go back. What does that survival look like if I’m not able to work, if I’m not able to feed myself, take care of my children, if I’m not able to get housing, how I am going to survive and that’s going to pretty much be by any means necessary. That’s the truth of it.”
The Inclusive Hiring Huddle came just a week after Chris Clark, President and CEO of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, brought the New Georgia Economy Tour to Augusta. Part of his presentation was familiar. He told business owners desperate for workers that they are missing out on several large pools of talent, including 610,000 veterans of working age, 2.2 million Georgians with disabilities, and 4.6 million Georgians with a criminal record.
For Mew, the challenge is to reach business owners and change their minds about hiring individuals with a record. Even if it must be done one business at a time.
“So, if you impact one and change one, I think more will follow as they talk to each other,” he said. “It’s just showing them that just because somebody made a mistake doesn’t mean they’re not still a person, doesn’t mean they don’t need to have a job or career or profession to survive. Don’t hold that against them. Look at the total character. We need to advocate for them. Crime is a cycle, and we need to get them out of that cycle, so they have hope, they have purpose, they have meaning.”
Garnes said ReNforce can offer one-on-one training and coaching to businesses interested in learning how to develop an inclusive workforce and decrease turnover rates.
More information is available at https://renforce.org/
