With between 70 and 100 million Americans having a criminal record and the unemployment rate for the formerly incarcerated at 27 percent, the Connecticut NAACP has added a new partner to its job placement campaign to help find work for formerly incarcerated residents.
UConn Health has joined the Connecticut NAACP’s One Million Jobs campaign to find job placements for formerly incarcerated individuals, committing to setting aside five percent of its entry-level job opportunities to employ formerly incarcerated workers.
“We are partnering with great workplaces such as UConn Health to work toward 10,000+ positions for formerly incarcerated individuals across the state of Connecticut over the next 3-5 years,” Scot X. Esdaile, CT NAACP President, said in a statement. “The CT NAACP values our partnership with UConn Health and we look forward to working together to ensure the goal of the One Million Jobs Campaign for the formerly incarcerated in Connecticut.”
As part of the campaign, the NAACP is partnering with the healthcare, construction, manufacturing and transportation industries to secure jobs for formerly incarcerated individuals over the next three to five years, according to the campaign’s website.
Yale-New Haven Health made a similar commitment last year, also pledging to set aside five percent of its entry-level job opportunities to employ formerly incarcerated workers. Other sponsors of the campaign include the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving and CVS Pharmacy.
UConn Health’s commitment to the NAACP’s One Million Jobs campaign comes following a national wave of shifting corporate attitudes towards hiring formerly incarcerated workers and local initiatives to give the formerly incarcerated a chance for success after leaving prison.
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