Fair Chance Month: Checkr's Impact Recap
April is recognized as Fair Chance Month, or Second Chance Month, an idea initiated by Prison Fellowship in 2017, a nonprofit organization that supports justice-impacted individuals through justice reform and reentry programming. Today, Second Chance Month is a nationwide movement, though we prefer the term “Fair Chance Month”.
Checkr celebrates Fair Chance Month each year, and is committed to fair chances year round. We believe opportunities shouldn’t be limited, and that everyone deserves a fair chance to access employment, contribute to the economy, and have a positive impact in their communities.
A month of impactful events
This year, we focused Fair Chance Month on gathering with our community partners and the individuals they serve, and bringing our employees more proximate to the justice-impacted community and our commitment to fair chance.
Volunteering with community partners
Checkr employees volunteered at Skyline Correctional Center and San Quentin Rehabilitation Center with two of our community partners, Breakthrough and The Last Mile. Inside, volunteers conducted mock interviews and connected with currently incarcerated individuals.
Community Networking Day
We held our first Community Networking Day, where we hosted a number of justice-impacted individuals who have participated in programs with our community partners at The Last Mile, CROP Organization, Defy Ventures, Code Tenderloin, and Dev/Mission for a day of resume reviews, mock interviews, and networking sessions. More than 60 volunteers came to support, with special presentations from Checkr’s Daniel Yanisse, Co-founder and CEO; Su-Han Wang, Managing Litigation and Regulatory Compliance Counsel; and Doran Ingalls, Business Recruiter.
Volunteering in Santiago
Our team in Santiago donated items and assembled 50 hygiene kits for Mujer Levántate, a nonprofit that supports the social reintegration of formerly incarcerated women through programming and job training support. We also donated equipment that was needed for their job skills training program.
Our final volunteering event involved conducting mock interviews with 80 incarcerated women who are a part of Televerde Foundation's pre-release program, preparing for their job search post-release.
Film screening and panel
Checkr employees gathered in our offices, and virtually, to watch three impactful short films by justice-impacted creators: "Shoebox” by D’Lo Louis, "Friendly Signs," by Rahsaan Thomas, and "The Bridge Between Two Worlds,” by Antwan Banks Williams. A panel with the filmmakers followed the screenings, allowing employees to learn more about the creators and their processes, as well as hear their unique perspectives. It was a rich and insightful discussion with great questions from the audience.
“The Only Door I Can Open”
A group of Checkr employees visited the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts exhibit "The Only Door I Can Open." The immersive multimedia exhibition was curated by women within prison to explore truths and give insight into the experience of incarceration. The exhibitor, Empowerment Avenue, provided a special tour for us and facilitated a powerful conversation.
Strong business outcomes webinar
We concluded the month with a webinar about how fostering a fair chance culture for talent with records can enrich your organization. Our panel of experts shared unique insights from talent with lived experience and their managers and explored the tangible business benefits of employing justice-impacted talent. Watch it on-demand.
Strong Business Outcomes With Fair Chance Hiring
Learn how hiring talent with records can positively impact your team and business.
Technology built for fairness
Fair chance initiatives extend beyond April. At Checkr, we’ve made a commitment to the work and designed our platform to empower fair hiring practices with features that put fair chance principles into action.
- Assess helps reduce bias during the adjudication process by filtering out background check results that you decide aren’t relevant to a role. Assess Lite, which is free with every Checkr account, lets you easily set criteria for which records are relevant to a position. Add-on packages Assess Standard and Assess Premium offer even more tools to help larger or fast-growing employers optimize adjudication.
- Candidate Stories makes it easy for employers to request information needed to perform individualized assessments when a background check returns an arrest or conviction record. Candidates can share context around their arrest or conviction history, such as a personal statement, the circumstances of the offense, and any evidence of rehabilitation, from within our Candidate Portal.
- Fair Chance Dashboard helps educate employers on their fair chance hiring efforts. Employers can see how many justice-impacted candidates progress through their hiring funnel, compare their performance to that of other employers, and access resources for improvement.
Through the use of Assess, more than five million candidates have been unblocked from potential job opportunities and more than 150,000 candidates have leveraged our Candidate Stories tool to help share more about their unique circumstances.
Upcoming panel: Designing Fairness: The Future of Justice Reform
Join us for a dynamic panel exploring how design thinking is revolutionizing criminal justice reform across the entire system—from prevention to reentry. We will have visionaries from Designing Justice + Designing Spaces, Recidiviz, ideas42's (Un)Warranted initiative, CROP Organization, and Checkr who are using human-centered approaches to dismantle barriers and create pathways to opportunity.
Enjoy a snack, drink, and connect with mission-driven designers. Don't miss this rare opportunity to witness how design methodologies are being applied to one of society's most pressing challenges. RVSP today!
Designing Fairness: The Future of Justice Reform
Explore how design thinking is revolutionizing criminal justice reform across the entire system.
Ready to learn more?
We are dedicated to promoting fair chance hiring through innovative products and social impact to help employers find the best talent for their business. Explore resources, stories, and tools to get started at your organization.
Disclaimer
The resources and information provided here are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Always consult your own counsel for up-to-date legal advice and guidance related to your practices, needs, and compliance with applicable laws.