Community Hiring Model Language: Why Do We Need It And How Does It Work?

Each year hundreds of thousands of people are released from incarceration and return to neighborhoods suffering from underemployment and lack of opportunity. In order to put our communities back to work, we need policies that prioritize lifting local residents out of poverty by giving them access to good jobs.

  • Community hiring requirements create incentives for employers to hire from the community, and good first source referral systems create the pipeline of qualified workers from low-income areas prepared to meet that demand.
  • Ban the box policies remove questions of criminal history from the initial job application, ensuring applicants are considered on their qualifications first.
  • Job quality standards such as living wage, paid sick days, and other measures help make sure that the jobs made available are good jobs.

These policies work together to enhance the applicant pool available to employers, assist employers and policymakers in complying with federal antidiscrimination laws and in redressing economic inequality, and strengthen our communities. This resource will provide information on integrating the policies.

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