![]() The unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated individuals is 27% – roughly eight times higher than the national average. ![]() ![]() Nearly two-thirds of men in their 30s who are unemployed have criminal records, a barrier that keeps them from positions they are qualified for, even if their crimes were committed years in the past and they have already served their time. However, few avenues exist to connect hiring professionals with these candidates. And people who have been in prison have the skills and desire for those jobs. Second chance hiring platform offers a doorway in for people with a criminal recordĬompanies committed to hiring formerly incarcerated people have an excess of open positions. Doing so ensures that individuals are being considered fully for their skills and qualifications - and helps them move past the stigma of their convictions so they can avoid recidivating and realize their full potential. Honest Jobs is a platform that matches candidates with a criminal record to open positions with second chance employers. Rather than become discouraged, Blakeman created Honest Jobs to help himself and others like him who have served time in prison for past mistakes and are working hard to get their lives back on track. “I had worked so hard to get through college and now I was begging for a job that paid $14 an hour,” Blakeman says. Blakeman interviewed at close to 100 companies and received employment offers, but each one was rescinded after his background check. Upon release, he excelled in community college, eventually transferring and getting a degree from The Ohio State University, where he graduated with honors at the top of his class.īut upon entering the job market, he found that his past was still holding him back. When he was 18, he was arrested and spent just over a year in prison paying for his mistakes.īlakeman used his time in prison to get sober and earn a high school diploma. He fell in with “terrible role models” and began selling drugs by 17. He dropped out of high school and had no home. His mother struggled with addiction and his father was dead. At 15, many years before he would found Honest Jobs, Harley Blakeman was dealing with the sorts of challenges no teen should face alone.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |