Every year in America, hundreds of thousands of men and women are released from jails and prisons into every community. Most of these neighbors of ours want to build a new life. But without quality employment, many of these men and women remain in the “underground” illegal economy. Then, new crimes. New victims. Back to jail. Broken families. Expensive prisons. Nobody wins.

Employers are coming to see their decisive role in interrupting mass incarceration—when someone taking courageous steps out of prison or addiction gets a job with a living wage, benefits, and supportive staff, it’s a game changer. Not only for their own recovery, but for their children having a stable parent. With solid employment, better living situations open up. Then more healing and strength ripples outward into our shared community.

Not only that—it transforms the heart and culture of a business. The staff at our Underground Employers tell us a larger sense of community and purpose has warmed through the larger company as they celebrate their coworker’s successes and learn about the challenges they are overcoming. The company starts to feel like more than just a job, more than just a brand making a product as usual. A deeper purpose grows among coworkers.

These men and women leaving the underground become some of the strongest employees on the team, with grit, honesty, humor, and a host of surprising “transferrable skills” from their underground years.

BUT WHERE DOES A BUSINESS START?

We have found a formula for community partnership that can work anywhere.

Starting with Underground Coffee at Fidalgo Coffee Roasters here in our local Skagit Valley, Underground Ministries has created an employment model over the last decade with several other regional employers.

Rather than nonprofits struggling to figure out how to create and run a small side business or “social enterprise” to employ those they serve, and rather than well-intentioned companies facing frustration when their “felony-friendly” hiring yields hopeful employees who sometimes stop showing up due to the layers of hidden reentry barriers they often face alone or in shame—we have found that support organizations (recovery programs, homes, ministries, nonprofits) and employers can work together.

Here’s the three-part foundation of the Underground Employment Model (UEM):

The EMPLOYEE gets a quality job with employers that are fully aware, and supportive, of their journey, with its unique and ongoing needs. They don’t have to hide. Rather, they are celebrated.
The EMPLOYER can focus on what they do best—running a business and taking care of their staff. They rely on the support organization to refer candidates in their programs, and continue to walk with these employees for three months of ongoing personal, legal, recovery support.
The SUPPORT ORGANIZATION doesn’t have to send people out into the community armed with only a thin resumé and thinner hope. Rather, they can build business allies locally, where the men and women they support continue to grow and flourish with life-transforming employment opportunities.

Building on years of successful employment pairings with our local Underground Employers (below), we are developing an online step-by-step blueprint—complete with downloadable PDFs, videos, and best practices—equipping support organizations and interested employers everywhere to get started in creating their own Underground Employment partnerships. We are not trying to manage a network, or sell a product, but create free DIY “resources for resurrection” that can jumpstart a revolution of relationships nationwide.

We don’t need yet one more brand. We need a mass movement.

We want to help.

GET STARTED

Are you an employer interested in transforming your community and your company in this way? We’d love to hear from you.

If you are in NW Washington State, we can get to work right away.

As you wait, send this page and video to others in your company and community. Build on existing relationships. Spread the conversation. Open new ones. And keep us in the loop.

FOUNDING UNDERGROUND EMPLOYMENT PARTNERS

Underground Coffee / Fidalgo Coffee Roasters | Burlington, WA

T Bailey, Inc | Anacortes, WA

Materials Testing & Consulting, Inc | Burlington, WA

Lifetime Roofers | Everett, WA

R & S Electric | Marysville, WA

CANFLEX, Inc | Anacortes, WA