Best Practices in Sourcing, Hiring and Retaining Justice-Impacted Individuals
17 million people have a felony in the United States. 119M have an immediate family member that has been incarcerated in prison or jail. Yet, up to 75% of formerly incarcerated individuals remain unemployed one year after their release. According to Wendy Safstrom, SMRM Foundation's Executive director, 'The value of untapped talent must be recognized as more than a matter of social good or community goodwill; workers from these groups provide high return on investment and unique skills that employers should be realizing, and we want HR professionals to be more reflective of these diverse populations.' This panel will provide a strategic overview of a program that operates inside the DC DOC and how employers can create similar approaches to finding and hiring emerging talent that is justice-impacted.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the value of unique training programs for justice-impacted individuals.
- Identify a strategic blueprint for implementing similar programs for your industry.
- Learn ongoing strategies for supporting justice-impacted populations at your company.
In-person session offerings are on a first-come, first-served basis.
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If a speaker has provided session materials, please visit https://presentations.shrm.org
Arti V. Finn
Arti Finn is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of APDS, an ed-tech public benefit corporation and B Corporation grounded at the intersection of the justice-impacted and education technology. Arti is the foremost authority on the use of technology to enhance educational outcomes and applies her expertise to support the nation's 6 million plus justice-impacted individuals to obtain living wage employment.
She has served as Chief Business Development Officer, and Chief Revenue Officer of APDS. She sits on the Board of the company she co-founded in 2013, which currently operates in 18 states and hundreds of facilities. And as a Board member of the Correctional Association of New York, she supports the only independent organization in New York with authority under state law to monitor prisons
Arti Finn and APDS are committed to shifting the correctional system in the United States from one of warehousing to one of true rehabilitation.
Amy Lopez
Dr. Lopez began her career as a public-school teacher and then administrator in Texas, her home state. She found her way into correctional education as the Superintendent of Education for the Texas Juvenile Justice Department and was later recruited to initiate education reforms for the students in the custody of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice by the Windham School District. In 2016, Obama-era Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates recruited Dr. Lopez to build a school district within the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Dr. Lopez then served as the Deputy Director of College and Career Readiness and Professional Development for the DC Department of Corrections where she designed and implemented innovative academic and workforce development programs for incarcerated students and a post-release employment program for justice-involved individuals returning to the community. She is a graduate of Texas Tech University, earned her M.Ed. from Lubbock Christian University, and her doctoral degree from Sam Houston State University. She is currently the CEO of Past the Edges Consulting, partnering with APDS and correctional institutions to transform and elevate the educational experience of incarcerated students across the country.