PassGo: An Employment Empowerment Initiative

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Date

2017-05-03

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Ohio State University. Office of Outreach and Engagement

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Abstract

PassGo is an undergraduate student organization dedicated to connecting local Columbus employers to formerly incarcerated people searching for work, providing job skills programs to ex-offenders, and advocating against stigma in order to ease the difficult process of re-entry. We foster connections with Columbus businesses, create volunteer programs to help with education and jobs skills, and hold awareness events, such as book drives for prison libraries and discussion panels on employment equality.

Description

IMPACT. 1: To educate Columbus employers on the benefits of hiring formerly incarcerated people (second chance employment), and to connect employers to these prospective employees, measurable by the number of job offers. -- 2. To help ex-offenders we work with to improve their job skills and educational qualifications, measurable by GED scores and the number of ex-offenders in attendance at our volunteer programs. -- 3. To increase awareness of the barriers that ex-offenders face and the need to eliminate the stigmatization of a felony conviction, measurable by the attendance at our events.
OSU PARTNERS: The Eminence Fellows Program: PassGo is the service project designed by the Eminence Class of 2018 to be a sustainableinitiative that tackles a specific community problem.; The Criminal Justice Research Center
COMMUNITY PARTNERS: Alvis Halfway House: GED tutoring program; ONE-STOP Career Center: job skills curricula
PRIMARY CONTACT: Eleni Christofides (christofides.3@osu.edu)

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Citation

Engaged Scholars, v. 5 (2017).