Recognizing Fair Chance Month at Checkr

Every April, Fair Chance Month is an opportunity to promote more inclusive hiring practices and to elevate awareness about the importance of reducing barriers to employment for justice-impacted individuals. Nearly one in three adult Americans has an arrest or conviction record, and the barriers they face in finding employment, housing, and stability are significant and often compounding. A background check shouldn't be the end of someone's story. It should be one part of a fuller picture.

That's the commitment at the center of Fair Chance Month, and it's the commitment that drove how Checkr showed up this April. Fair chance isn't just something we work on; it’s baked into our mission. And this month, our team took time to put that into practice.

We started the month where fair chance hiring begins, with justice-impacted people themselves. A group of Checkr colleagues joined a career panel for women currently enrolled in Televerde Foundation's program, many of whom are preparing for careers upon their release.

Aron Roy, Amanda Harmon, Angelina Frazey, and Hanna Dobrynski shared their own career paths, what their day-to-day work actually looks like, and the kind of honest, practical advice you don't always get in a formal setting. There were no polished talking points, just real people talking about real careers with women who are ready to build theirs.

It was a good reminder that sometimes the most valuable thing you can offer is just showing up and giving raw insight into how you got where you are.

Checkr panelists and Televerde Foundation program participants

Later in the month, almost 50 Checkrs logged on for a day of virtual resume coaching with Televerde Foundation. Together, they coached more than 50 women on resumes, helping them articulate their skills, navigate how to most effectively demonstrate their experiences, and get their materials ready for the job market.

It was inspiring to see the commitment of each woman going through the program, and the dedication each person had to growing and expanding their skills. Employers will be lucky to hire these women in the future!

Our Solutions leadership team hosted 15 justice-impacted participants from Breakthrough in our Denver office for a hands-on afternoon organized by Lindsay Horwood on our Business Development team. The event was designed around practical skill-building: an introduction to AI and best practices, small group sessions where participants worked through their own real-life use cases, and a networking happy hour to help them build those skills in a low-pressure setting.

Some participants were very recently released. A handful had never used a computer before. That context is worth sitting with, and it's exactly the kind of reminder that keeps this work grounded. Volunteers engaged directly with participants throughout the afternoon, and by the end, it was clear the learning had gone both ways.

One of the most memorable moments of the month came during a visit to San Quentin as part of System Reset, a cross-sector coalition focused on reentry and workforce development and collaboration, currently co-facilitated by Checkr’s Head of Community Impact, Christina Louie Dyer. The Last Mile hosted the coalition, inviting the group into the new training center, a space where incarcerated students are learning coding, entrepreneurship, and professional skills.

Volunteers, including our Chief Legal Officer, Jen Yeh, and VP, Legal, Raul Moreno, had the opportunity to facilitate small breakouts with the students. This was the most powerful moment of the visit. The focus, commitment, and clarity from students about what they want to contribute and do once free was hard to walk away from without feeling a renewed sense of urgency about the work.

Fair chance isn't an abstraction when you're sitting across from someone who is actively preparing, against real odds, for a future they're determined to create.

System Reset attendee organizations: Roots of Success, The Last Mile, Checkr, Recidiviz, JUMP, CROP, Next Chapter, Fair Chance Futures, and Impact Justice

We closed out the month with the Fair Chance Innovation Lab, a two-hour hackathon in collaboration with Bounce Back, our Community Resource Group (CRG) for justice-impacted individuals and allies. Checkrs across offices and time zones came together to build something useful.

Participants chose from three tracks:

Teams used AI and other tools to build real concepts, and shared them out at the end of the session. The energy was high, and it was inspiring to see the ideas that were developed. Winners were able to choose a fair chance organization to donate to. We’re excited about the possibilities we can build upon from this event.

Thank you to our Bounce Back members, Amalia Chupp and Hanna Dobrynski for helping to lead this event in partnership with Community Impact.

Brandon Clark from St. Anthony’s sharing about the importance of access to digital literacy training.

We don't think of Fair Chance Month as a moment to check the box, but as a moment to check ourselves. Are we actually doing the things we say we believe in? Are we getting proximate to the people affected by the systems we're part of?

This April, we think the answer was yes. Fair Chance Month is one moment in a longer arc of work. We're committed to continuing to invest in the partnerships, programs, and tools that reduce barriers for justice-impacted individuals, not just in April, but year-round. To see how we’re putting these values into action through our foundation, visit Checkr.org.

About the author

Christina Louie Dyer is the Executive Director of Checkr.org and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Checkr, where she advances fairness and safety through employer and community partnerships. She leads Checkr’s mission impact efforts, including grantmaking and career programs like apprenticeships, to help build stronger, safer communities.