The City of Columbus, Ohio Department of Public Service has developed a successful partnership with Marysville Women’s Reformatory to provide a second chance to released inmates and direct-to-workforce hiring for the city. Programs at MWR develop real-life job skills that are needed within DPS, including gardening/horticulture skills and construction/construction techlogy skills that allow new hires from the program to be successful on day one. To date, Street Maintenance has hired four graduates of the program with success. Two of those hires have been promoted within their first six months on the job, a third has a pending promotion in her first six months, and the fourth has been promoted twice during her tenure with the city. Two of these staff have been successful in obtaining a CDL, and the other two are currently enrolled in an internal program to obtain their CDL. The program has proved to be an incredibly effective way to both bolster staff numbers and provide opportunity for those being released to the community. The city has found these employees to be among the hardest working members of their team, with incredibly positive attitudes. They consistently impress their peers and supervisors with their dedication, hard work, skill sets, and positive attitudes.

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be better able to:

• Evaluate an alternative partnership for staff recruitment.
• Explain the potential pros and cons of an invative recruitment tool.
• Develop a framework for what a similar program might look like for their community.

Contributor/Source

Lauren Hunter

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