Sharing Our Story and Expanding Our Ecosystem

Our Fair Chance team has the unique privilege of working with a wide range of companies, coalitions, and workforce leaders to design and implement talent strategies. While we frequently get to observe and experience the positive outcomes that come with expanding opportunities for candidates with past convictions, we rarely get to elevate our clients’ results to broad audiences. This year we have begun to more deliberately tell our story, and where we can, share the impacts we have seen through revised background screening processes and proactive Fair Chance recruiting strategies. We have spoken across the country to leaders in business, human resources, and workforce development, and hope that by sharing clear tactics and demonstrating real success we will drive more employers and leaders to prioritize Fair Chance employment as they enter 2026. 

Motivating Employers

In September, Matt Joyce joined Ken Oliver and Jeff Korzenik at the Corporate Coalition of Chicago to speak about the business imperative of Fair Chance Employment. Matt cited several examples of companies expanding their candidate pools by thousands of jobseekers through relatively minor changes to their hiring processes. 

In November, Matt and Tynecia Walker, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Komatsu, collaborated on a session on talent-centered background screening at the Human Potential Summit in Deer Valley, Utah. This gathering brought together nearly 300 leaders from business, education, and workforce development to explore how organizations can utilize new talent strategies to access a variety of untapped talent pools, including those impacted by the justice system. 

Partnering with Workforce Leaders 

In October, Cara Bowmore, led the "Building Inclusive Talent Pipelines" panel at the National Reentry Workforce Collaborative (NRWC) Annual Conference in Pittsburgh. Cara joined our collaborators from Philadelphia Works, JPMorgan Chase and SEPTA to highlight the impacts of our Philadelphia Fair Chance ecosystem. In partnering with NRWC, we hope to engage workforce and reentry practitioners as well as business leaders, government representatives, and employers to learn key tactics and practice changes that can drive Fair Chance employment.  

NRWC's Jason Whyte speaking at the NRWC Annual Conference

Also in October, Matt re-joined Jeff Korzenik, along with leaders from Checkr, JPMorgan Chase, and FWD.us at the Arouet Annual Symposium in Phoenix. The event included leaders in business, local government, and talent strategy to discuss how Arizona is positioned to become a national leader in Fair Chance employment. 

Driving Place-based Fair Chance Initiatives

Lastly, Matt spoke on two virtual sessions with the Greater Boston Chamber and Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia to discuss with their members why Fair Chance employment can drive positive business outcomes and improve region-wide employment and public safety outcomes. Envoy will be working for the next three years alongside Philadelphia Works and Philly Chamber to engage and support employers to build Fair Chance strategies, and we hope to see similar momentum build for a place-based initiative in Boston.