CINCINNATI — Cincinnati Works has launched a new program focused on breaking the cycle of incarceration and poverty across the city's communities.
"Cincinnati Works gave me a tunnel and they gave me that light at the end of the tunnel that says, 'Hey it’s not over,'" said Ebony Marshall, who received help through Cincinnati Works after she was released from jail in 2016.
Ever since then, Marshall says her life has done a complete 180.
"When I came here, I didn't know how much I would get. I just knew, 'Hey they said they would help me find a job.' That’s all I knew," Marshall said.
That was the first step in Marshall's journey, finding a job with felonies on her record.
"At that time I was a nurse, but my license was suspended, so I knew I couldn't go back to that," she said.
Cincinnati Works set Marshall up with a career coach when she first arrived. After resume tweaks and several mock and real interviews, she landed a job. Then the rest began to fall into place.
That’s the goal of Cincinnati Works' new Fair Chance Works program.
"This is a concentrated effort to really pay attention to those individuals returning back into our society from incarceration and helping them with the things they need so that they can become productive citizens," said Calista Hargrove, Chief Strategy Officer for Cincinnati Works.
In previous years, Cincinnati Works was focused more on outreach in neighborhoods with high violent crime. While their outreach teams are still in full swing, they wanted to try a more preventative solution.
"Let's work with them before they’re released from incarceration and see if we can’t get them started as soon as they get out on the right trail," Hargrove said.
The program helps individuals find housing, transportation, and a job once they are released but it doesn’t stop there.
"Most of them have experienced some sort of trauma in their life and so being able to provide that mental health, that coaching, that support network that they so desperately need to be on the right track,” Hargrove said.
The hope is with physical and mental support, those who were once incarcerated can get their lives back on track, just like Marshall, who is once again a full-time nurse.
"The person I am today, how I navigate in my job life, how I navigate careers, I solely base that I solely give thanks to Cincinnati Works for that," Marshall said.
Marshall said Cincinnati Works connected her with a local Legal Aid office. It was there that she was able to get her record expunged and her nursing license reinstated.
Her advice to anyone who is where she once used to be is to go to Cincinnati Works and ask for help. She added that the focus is not on what someone has done, but on how they recover and move forward.
If you need or want help from Cincinnati Works or their new program Fair Chance Works, you can visit their website. They also have an open door policy at their office in downtown Cincinnati at 708 Walnut Street, they are open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
