Cooking Success: Excelling In and Out of the Kitchen.

About the Program

Category: Human Services (Best in Category)

Year: 2019

Maricopa County Human Services Department, Workforce DevelopmentABSTRACT OF THE PROGRAM Smart Justice Employment Team (SJ) is committed to working with the re-entry population by collaborating with Maricopa County’s Sheriff Office (MCSO) and Adult Probation Department (APD), the Arizona Department of Corrections (DOC) and St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance’s Community Kitchen (CK). With almost 50,000 people incarcerated within Maricopa County Jails and Arizona DOC Prisons on any given day, there is a high need for substantial re-entry services and support for citizens as they transition into the community. The majority of these individuals will be released and in need of finding work to support themselves. Smart Justice continually develops new programs to fit the needs of released populations.Cooking Success: Excelling In and Out of the Kitchen.SJ Employment Team along with MCSO and Community Kitchen prepares inmates while in custody in the Food Factory for 6-weeks. The program continues with a paid work experience once they are released on probation. They complete the last 6 weeks of the 12-week culinary training program at Community Kitchen. Upon completion, they are placed with employers around Maricopa County for full time employment. The ARIZONA@WORK Smart Justice (SJ) Employment Team, through evidence-based case management practices, promotes pro-social roles within the workplace, their family, and in our communities. The SJ Employment Team guides and provides supportive services to returning citizens as they transition into the workforce. For the duration of this support, the SJ Employment Team works towards accountability and self-empowerment to help the reentrants navigate the seemingly insurmountable pressures of rebuilding their lives and reentering the community as law abiding citizens.THE PROBLEM OR NEED FOR THE PROGRAMHalf of Maricopa County’s budget is allocated to criminal justice and public safety. With the county’s population of over 4 million citizens, including 77,000 disconnected youth (citizens ages 16-24 who are not working or in school), demonstrates that a guided second chance is needed. Justice involved clients need positive linkages to resources with opportunities, considering many did not get a first chance to begin with.The SJ Employment Team targets the high-risk justice involved population while promoting evidence-based practices and reducing recidivism for individuals in Maricopa County. In 2016, the average daily population in Maricopa County Jails was 7,544 inmates, with estimates showing as few as 5 percent of offenders accounting for 40 percent of crimes. The average stay in jail is 28 days, demonstrating the prompt response for programming in jail and upon release. Smart Justice aims to reduce the high-risk population by utilizing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act grant (WIOA) and collaborating with Maricopa County’s Sheriff Office (MCSO) and Adult Probation Department (APD), the Arizona Department of Corrections (DOC) and community-based organizations. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROGRAM The SJ Employment Team was developed in 2015 in response to Maricopa County’s Smart Justice initiatives. The SJ Employment Team uses the Integrated Reentry and Employment Strategies Resource Allocation and Service Matching Tools to prioritize services for individuals at higher risk as interventions to reduce recidivism. These persistent offenders can commit a significant amount of crime while the lower risk population does not need the guidance that higher risk offenders need. If the same focus is given to low risk offenders, it may actually increase the likelihood in criminal behavior, almost reinforcing vulnerability to reoffend. Supervision alone does not reduce recidivism, and improved communication between various justice organizations helps us understand “what works” in Maricopa County. Supervision integrated with treatment and collaboration in different forms of support decreases the risk of re-offending. SJ Employment Team aims to bring together the missing pieces to assist the individual that has numerous barriers attached to him or her upon release of incarceration.The ARIZONA@WORK SJ Employment Team is a mobile and flexible team under Maricopa County Human Services that promotes pro-social roles within the workplace with family, and in their communities. The SJ Employment Team works out of community supervision sites, inside the jails and prisons, and in the community to assist and provide supportive services to people supervised by Adult Probation and ADOC Parole reentering the workforce. The re-entry population faces limited work or educational experience, many coming from high poverty areas. With this, options for employment become scarce and self-defeating, leading to an increase in re-arrest rates. The justice population served is not a “one size fits all,” but rather a focus on the Risk and Responsivity Model while targeting multiple criminogenic needs. The risk score is a “risk to recidivate” tool is administered upon release from jail and allows the SJ Employment Team to identify risk levels along with the Barriers to Employment Success Inventory (BESI) to assess job readiness and identify certain barriers to employment. Resource Allocation and Service Matching Tool Individualized Case ManagementNew opportunities for innovation become available under the SJ Employment Team as new partnerships in the community. The SJ Employment Team is knowledgeable in all aspects, specifically serving the justice population that provides individualized services tailored to each unique individual. This increases the value of the program and focuses on the population to follow the risk scores for the most in need. When clients are seen by the SJ Employment Team, they tend to be low income, high school dropouts, parents in need of child care, basic skills deficient, have unreliable transportation (or unable to afford public transportation), have unstable housing, have a history of substance use/misuse, mental health disorders, and have been unemployed long term. This is why it is necessary to be knowledgeable about community resources because sustaining a job alone is difficult when one or more barriers exist. The SJ Employment Team efficiently utilizes resources to prevent and respond to needs that can influence employment retention.Work Experiences Clients can participate in paid and unpaid work experiences. These are structured learning opportunities allow participants to gain exposure to the culinary world and prepares them for obtaining a full-time job. Our clients gain personal knowledge and skills needed to obtain a job in the future. Coaching opportunities will occur as they progress to ensure they are maximizing their skills in the workplace. The SJ Employment Team also has partnerships with employers in warehouse, laundry, construction and labor. Community Kitchen Paid Work ExperienceThe SJ Employment Team partners with agencies around the county to provide clients with real kitchen work experiences to learn soft skills, academic, and occupational skills. More specifically, SJ Employment Team has collaborated with Community Kitchen, up to a 12-week training paid work experience given to our clients. During this 12-week clients learn life skills, soft skills such as teamwork and anger management, along with knife skills, the culinary skills. Food Factory Unpaid Work Experience SJ Employment Team works in the food factory in the County Jail with inmates preparing to be released. Inmates are screened through the risk need assessment and begin working in the food factory. They learn the culinary skills before starting their paid work experience. Clients learn the discipline needed for maintaining work and assimilate into the daily routine of working a 40 hour a week job. Clients are coached during their time while working in jail and, also learn the soft skills to survive the second half of their paid work experience. Upon completion of food factory and released from jail, clients are met with their probation officer for the final 6 weeks of the Community Kitchen paid work experience.Process FlowEmpowerment According to ICF (Inner City Fund) International’s Lessons in Reentry from Successful Programs and Participants: The Final Report of Reentry Employment Opportunities Benchmarking Study, the most common facilitators of success is some of the least tangible or quantifiable aspects to an individual’s work. These include building trust and relationships, fostering vocational mindsets, and encouraging confidence and empowerment. Most individuals that begin reentry programs have never had a consistent family or community role model. SJ Employment Team helps participants see their value, both personally and professionally, while they seek employment. This heavily applies with SJ Employment Team’s focus in the workforce, the ability to communicate transferrable skills which is critical to the participants’ success in the program.The SJ Employment Team coaches and guides the program participants through real-life empowerment exercises to help see themselves as more than just their past mistakes or the F word, “felon”. This is imperative in the success of our clients. Changing their mindset, working on accountability and empowering them to move past their history which leads to self-advocacy and the ability to market themselves successfully to employers. Most importantly, they feel worthy which prevents future self-sabotaging behaviors. While using family centered coaching, trauma informed care, motivational interviewing, financial coaching and gender responsive practices, SJ Employment Team empowers our clients to excel.In addition to coaching justice-involved clients, the SJ Employment Team actively trains service providers and community members to expand their impact by building relationships through empathy.RESPOND TO ECONOMIC DOWNTURN Traditionally, it has been found that particular work industries are more accepting of individuals with background concerns. These industries are food services and labor professions such as construction, warehouse, logistics, and production. The employers who are more background friendly are also targeted as potential placement possibilities for our clients. By focusing our efforts demanding industry sectors, we are providing a strong response to the economic downturn. The SJ Employment team connects these employers with talent to fill their open positions. Our work programs provide our clients with an opportunity to develop the skills and teamwork that is needed to thrive in an economy that is looking for talent in these areas. Additionally, our paid Work Experiences create connections for clients with poor work histories and gaps of employment (from jail or prison). Working one-on-one with the SJ Employment Team helps the clients feel empowered in their employment search. The SJ Employment Team is strategically placed at the probation offices and the community to better respond to the high levels of individuals being released in that area. Being in an Adult Probation site makes it convenient for clients to receive our services since we are located on major public transportation lines. Clients are able to visit immediately after seeing their probation officer. THE COST OF THE PROGRAM Innovative use of existing funds, evidence-based approaches, and highly motivated staff support the program. The SJ Employment Team uses existing Disconnected Youth, Adult and Dislocated Worker funding received from the Department of Labor through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to fund the program. WIOA has increased the focus on serving the most vulnerable workers, including ex-offenders. The SJ Employment Team was formed to meet this need. The SJ Employment Team’s budgeted amount for the 2018 fiscal year is $1 million for adults. SJ Employment Team also receives a small percentage for youth funding (ages 18-24) from WIOA. Funded services include paid work experiences, apprenticeships, occupational skills training, transportation assistance, childcare support, and interview attire. With the limited amount of resources and staff, SJ Employment Team utilizes the resources of its collaborative partners to maximize success with clients who are incarcerated and who are on probationer. Inmates are met in jail in classrooms or while they are participating in Food Factory. Probation classrooms and intake rooms are used at probation sites to meet with clients once they are released. SJ Employment Team has created partnerships with probation, so once a client is in need of job assistance, they are immediately sent to the SJ Employment Team. THE RESULT AND SUCCESS OF THE PROGRAMWhat’s our impact?• 2,607 participated in over 100 employment orientations and referral sessions in MCSO jails, APD offices, DOC and other community-based organizations• 1,385 referrals submitted by probation and parole officers• 1,113 clients provided basic career services at Maricopa County Adult Probation sites• 600+ justice involved individuals enrolled by ARIZONA@WORK - Maricopa County• 314 probationers enrolled by SJ Employment Team o 60% of individualized enrolled entered employment o $5,575 average quarterly wage • 100+ connections made with “Justice-Involved Friendly” and socially conscious employers o Top sectors: construction, manufacturing, hospitality, tourism, and transportationPaid work experiences, occupational and behavioral training • 191 medium to high risk participants over 18 months • 32,000 hours of work experience • 67% successfully completed or employed • The average quarterly wage increased to $3,667 upon completion of the program o 74% increase in earnings for those previously employed Community Kitchen Work Experience• 60 participated with 43 graduates • All but one of the graduates entered employment within 60 days of graduatingTHE WORTHINESS OF THE AWARD The innovative and synergistic collaboration between multiple county departments and community-based organizations within the fourth largest county in the United States is certainly noteworthy. The design and implementation of the program is based on best practices surrounding Smart Justice research and is a continuation of the County’s commitment to this work. This program is an excellent example of government entities working together to implement Smart Justice concepts. This program has the potential to serve as a foundation for future programs throughout the county. Even with employment retention and recidivism data having to wait a year to be collected, the program’s combination of providing work experience, cognitive behavioral training, and other support services is demonstrating promising results allowing clients to earn a living while learning. This extra training allows the clients to increase their job readiness which makes them a more desirable candidate and lowers recidivism rates of participants because they are engaged in career services. This program not only helps its participants to realize their potential, but benefits every citizen of Maricopa County by reducing the costs associated with recidivism.The SJ Employment Team delivers an individualized reentry program with case management and coaching that aims to disrupt generational poverty. We significantly and positively impact the lives of real people, their families, and our communities. New programs and relationships are always in development as the team adapts to demanding industries. The SJ Employment Team has developed relationships to take people in need and empower them to cook up success and excel in and out of the kitchen!SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS (OPTIONAL)• Client Success Storieso Chriso Jannah• Data submitted to Workforce Arizona Council in September 2018