HeroGive Foundation: A First Chance for Second Chance Employment
America is experiencing a growing employment crisis. While support for Fair Chance policies gain bipartisan support across the country, second chance training programs are connecting with Fortune 500 employers to create first chance opportunities that could define the future of work (and incarceration) in America for the better.
37 US states and more than 150 US cities and counties have adopted Fair Chance or Ban the Box policies.
By now everyone knows HeroBridge’s origins story - A human centered approach to supporting marginalized communities creates sustainable, supported, productive and resilient people. The margins are waiting to be destroyed by us going to them, armed with community technology that has the ability to cut through historic barriers like a crysknife through butter.
There is probably no sadder statistic than that of incarceration in America. With the largest incarcerated population of any developed nation, that is unfortunately only half the story. The business model for the prison industrial complex assumes repeat business. Statistically, in California for example, two our of every three formerly incarcerated individuals will be reincarcerated within five years. However, programs like Homeboy Industries can reduce that statistic to one in three. Programs like Televerde Foundation enjoy a zero percent recidivism rate for its hundreds of graduates. Are these just amazing rehabilitation programs - no. They are amazing habilitation programs.
Over the years, through our service to former foster youth, returning veterans, former gang members and the formerly incarcerated community, we learned something incredibly significant from our data - people who have never had a positive role model, a safe and healthy social network, lived in an environment where despair and scarcity is the only visible outcome - are yearning for a different path. The product of five years of behavioral data from HeroBridge communities is clear - when a person is welcomed into an informed community of mentorship where they feel safe, they soon become confident in themselves - usually for the first time - and help seeking behavior swells in them like a tsunami. In the right community they will flourish. We therefore have discovered, that we are not providing second chance community technology, we are delivering first chance opportunities.
“I always dreamt of holding my first paycheck.” -Rezi In the darkest times of pandemic, HeroBridge helped Rezi realize this dream while he helped create a community for others with the same dream. (A time capsule post from Stepping Forward in 2021.)
Business society is beginning to realize that a national policy that seeks to incarcerate its way out of every social issue is bad for business. The bluntness of this statement may not land well with every reader, but the fact of the matter is that America is facing the largest employment gap -8 million jobs - that there is simply no one to currently fill. The future of work in America, and its path to maintaining economic global supremacy is right now, sitting idle in Cell Block C of San Quentin Prison. Some have already come out and are proving this statement correct. The San Quentin 1000 Mile Running Club has a zero percent recidivism rate, and a dozen new community clubs have sprung up across the country as a result of awareness created by our film 26.2 to Life on ESPN.
So, how to we make these solutions viral? How can you become a real patriot and make America’s future of work bright, while reducing your own taxes? (yes you are paying for that eager young man in Cell Block C, and that young women in Indianapolis who is ready for the workforce thanks to Televerde.) Yes, the truth is, getting tough on crime comes through replacing its false promises with compassion, kinship, mentorship and resources. In a word, community.
The answer is simple: Build more communities of support and resources bound together by the connective tissue of community technology that HeroBridge delivers. We, right now have the ability to tie together the growing number of amazing organizations like Fair Chance Corporate Cohort and Fortune 500 Human Resource and legal departments to make sustainable and infinitively scalable. And why wouldn’t we? According to NPR and WSJ:
“For employers of formerly incarcerated employees, their retention rates are higher, turnover is lower, and they are more loyal. Hiring them can mean the difference between continuing in civilian life or re-incarceration.”
This is the passionate cause of our foundation HeroGive. In the words of St John of DeSales, this is our path to heaven. Something very profound and human stirs inside of you when you witness a person living in the light of abundance rather than the fear and despair of scarcity. We will share these stories with you. Here is how you can join us in this journey of social impact patriotism.
Your tax deductible donation to the HeroGive Foundation, a 501c3 Donor Advised Fund will make it so we can provide our world class community technology to second chance training organizations for free, forever. Once established, employers who take advantage of the programs will pay a subscription fee, part of which will flow back to the donor advised fund to create perpetual sustainability and scalability as we bring on new program partners and new markets. We estimate that your donation of $100,000 will net a return of $500,000 in subscription in three years. Click here to learn more about the HeroGive Foundation
For more information contact frank@herobridgeLA.org or deborah@herobridgemediatech.com
