When Second Chance Act funding became available reentry agencies scrambled to get a slice of the pie. For some, applying for grants became almost as important as helping clients, after all money is needed to run programs. Every agency that applied for grant money professed to be “the best” at helping those with a criminal history smoothly transition from prison to the community. Many actually were helpful, and those with the highest success rate were usually those with the highest number of formerly incarcerated persons on their staff.
Why? Cultural competence may be the answer. Cultural competence is defined as “ A set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency or among professionals and enable that system, agency or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.” Federal agencies such as the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) require grant seekers to show evidence that they practice cultural competence if they are to receive funding.
One of the most respected reentry organizations in the world, the Fortune Society, has arguably the highest evidence of cultural competence. Eighty percent of the Fortune Society’s employees are persons of color, and 70 percent of them have a background of incarceration, substance abuse and/or homelessness, an impressive record. That type of record is important for an agency or organization that works with reentrants.
Among the reentering population is the frustration that most employers won’t hire someone with a criminal record. This frustration is often compounded by the fact that many organizations that profess the willingness to help with reentry are often staffed with employees that don’t have a clue as to the prison/racial/substance abuse/ homeless culture of their clients. This is not to say that those without the same culture can’t be empathetic. But empathy and living that life is not the same.
A small, random and, admittedly unscientific, poll of formerly incarcerated persons conducted by Reentry Central staff members found respondents were most likely to trust and feel comfortable with an agency that hired people with backgrounds similar to theirs. One respondent expressed the view that any established reentry agency or organization with several employees that did not have at least one formerly incarcerated person as a staff member should not be granted funding if they did not practice what they preached--enhancing employment opportunities for people with a criminal history.
The Fortune Society and John Jay College of Criminal Justice have put together a toolkit that will aid reentry organizations, or other organizations dealing with the formerly incarcerated, substance abusers or the homeless hire service users. Employing Your Mission: Building Cultural Competence in Reentry Services Agencies Through the Hiring of Individuals Who are Formerly Incarcerated and/or in Recovery examines America’s reentry crisis, and barriers to employment, while also giving agencies and organizations information on how to promote cultural competence in their own workplace.
Ninety-seven percent of inmates will eventually be released, at a rate of over 735,000 people annually. That number is astounding, and for those who will be a part of that figure, the ability to find a job is commensurate with successful reentry. Reentry agencies or organizations who haven’t already hired a reentering citizen will find Employing Your Mission a helpful tool in putting their (grant) money where their mouth is.
Source: Prison Legal News
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