
Know someone who’s come out of prison or jail and is job-hunting? Or an employer who will look at someone with a criminal background?
Fort Worth’s fourth Reentry Job & Resource Fair will be 9 a.m.-noon Jan. 15, 2300 Circle Drive. Four local nonprofits established the Continuing the Climb initiative in 2017 to support people returning from incarceration to Tarrant County: the Cornerstone Assistance Network Reentry First Stop Center; Redemption Bridge; Texas Offenders Reentry Initiative; and Unlocking Doors. The City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County are joining them for the job fair. Goodwill Industries of Fort Worth also supports the job fair. Workforce's Work in Texas site keeps track of felon-friendly workplaces.
The most recent fair, in August, featured 36 employers and 19 supporting organizations. “Since inception, the job fair has resulted in 273 confirmed job offers,” John Benson, director of programs and outreach at Redemption Bridge, said.
Employers signed up to attend the job fair are “felon-friendly,” Andre Johnson, director of the Reentry First Stop Center.
Interested employers are encouraged to register to attend the event, Lacey Douglas, communications and events director for Workforce Solutions said. Jobseekers can register here.
Rex Gerstner, post-release reentry specialist for Unlocking Doors, said “full-time and part-time positions will be available”, and “some of our employers will be offering on the spot hiring.”
The Fort Worth Municipal Court is offering a safe harbor initiative that ensures jobseekers won’t be arrested for outstanding Municipal Court warrants. Additional information: continuingtheclimb.org
Annually, Tarrant County welcomes back about 5,000 people from state prisons and 19,000 from Tarrant County Jail, and employment experts have pointed to the need for workplaces to consider job candidates with criminal backgrounds and develop related hiring policies and processes. Tarrant County Commissioner Roy C. Brooks, a longtime advocate of reentry, notes one in working-age Texans has some sort of criminal record.
“It’s important that we assimiliate those job seekers into our workforce, to close the gap in sectors that cannot find skilled labor,” Brooks said.