POE wants to thank Sarah Callander and Mary-Denise Davis of the Office of the Public Defender, for allowing us to attend the 5th Annual Back to the Neighborhood: How to Succeed with a Criminal Record, an event sponsored by the Office of Public Defender and the Justice Policy Institute.
Attendees of this July 23, 2015 event took part in community dialogues, learned about current practices and were offered legal assistance.
POE sat in on a very interesting session, conducted by Caryn Aslan, Senior Policy Advocate with the Job Opportunities Task Force, discussing the hurdles faced by individuals with criminal records, in securing employment and residences.
During the past couple of years, POE has performed the EEOC recommended Individualized Assessments (IA) for our clients on some of their prospective employee applicants and also for our multi-housing clients on their prospective resident applicants.
And, although the IA is not a guarantee of approval, the applicants for whom we have conducted the IA’s have proven successful in their jobs and/or residences with our clients.
The various Federal, State and local Second Chance Programs afford participants career training, mentoring and other reentry services. If your organization has an interest in discussing the Individualized Assessments, please let us know.