To introduce our city’s employers to fair chance hiring, the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Advisory Council, in partnership with the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, released the Fair Chance Hiring Toolkit for Businesses last year. This year CJAC was proud to partner with the Greater OKC Chamber once again to bring employers and diversion program leaders together for the Fair Chance Hiring Workshop and Expo on Wednesday, May 24th.
The expo introduced employers to the fair-chance hiring process and gave them the opportunity to hear fair-chance employers share how hiring diversion program participants benefited their companies in a variety of ways. Participants heard from legal, human resource and tax experts who identified the many ways employers benefit from fair chance hiring including becoming eligible for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit.
Featured guest speakers included Jim Priest, president of fair chance employer, Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma, Drew Cook, a former justice-involved recipient of TEEM services who now serves the organization as its employment navigator specialist, ReMerge Executive Director Jenna Morey, Crowe & Dunlevy human resource and legal expert Michael Bowling and Diversion Hub Executive Director Meagan Taylor.