Employability & Success Coaching Supports Formerly Incarcerated Individuals

QA Commons Launches Employability & Success Coaching Program to Support Formerly Incarcerated Individuals

Pioneering Program Aims to Reduce Recidivism and Enhance Employability Through Targeted Coaching and Mentorship

St. Louis, MO, July 23, 2024 – A unique collaboration between Quality Assurance Commons (QA Commons), the Missouri Department of Corrections, and the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN), supported with funding from Ascendium Education Group, has launched. Over the summer, twenty justice-impacted individuals are engaged in a six-week Employability & Success Coaching training program to prepare to be matched with a newly released individual and support them via a ten-month coaching engagement.

Studies have revealed that maintaining employment for one year can reduce recidivism rates by more than three times, and the potential impact of this program is significant. Michelle Deasy, Executive Director of QA Commons, sees this as a tremendous opportunity for change. “Formerly incarcerated individuals often possess more skills than they are given credit for – or that they recognize themselves. There is a clear need to provide guidance, encouragement, and support to newly released individuals if they are to realize their potential,” she said.

Since 2016, QA Commons has worked with more than 100 academic and training institutions at over 40 higher education, workforce development, and carceral institutions to ensure today’s learners are prepared for the changing dynamics of today’s economy. The organization’s work is centered on Essential Employability Qualities – the skills, attributes, and personal characteristics that enhance an individual’s ability to perform effectively in the workplace. QA Commons helps learners to identify and strengthen skills they already possess, build new competencies, articulate these qualities to potential employers, succeed in a job, and build a path toward economic independence and mobility.

Terrell Blount, Executive Director of FICGN, emphasized the transformative power that mentorship and networking between people in reentry provides. “Credible messengers—whether as mentors, coaches, or our network members—play an important role in helping foster new relationships among those with similar lived experiences. These connections not only enhance personal growth but also significantly bolster employability and job attainment for people in our community looking to contribute to a company.”

The Success Coaching program is part of a larger initiative that Ascendium supports with QA Commons and the Missouri Department of Corrections. QA Commons has engaged Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructors within the department in Employability Skills training and has worked with several CTE programs to provide students with Employability Skills Badges highlighting the skills they are developing, allowing them to recognize and speak about those skills in their career search.

QA Commons is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to ensure today’s learners are prepared for the changing dynamics of the workforce and economy. Partnering to bridge the gap between education and employment, the organization offers professional development, program certification, student employability badging, evaluation, and consulting to education and workforce providers. For more information, visit www.theqacommons.org.

The Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that promotes the education and empowerment of formerly incarcerated people through a collective community. FICGN has over 1,600 members in nearly all 50 U.S. states and several countries who are formerly incarcerated and have achieved higher education attainment, working in various fields in the public and private sectors. FICGN unites system-impacted scholars to use their collective knowledge, resources, and lived expertise to support one another personally and professionally. For more information, visit www.ficgn.org.

The Missouri Department of Corrections works to make Missouri safer. Throughout the state, its 10,000 employees supervise 23,000 people in 19 institutions and 52,000 on probation and parole. The department fosters rehabilitation, treatment, and education to help ensure that justice-involved Missourians contribute to their communities, both inside and outside the walls. About 96 percent of people who enter the prison system ultimately are released into Missouri cities and towns. The Department of Corrections wants to make sure they’re good neighbors. For more information, visit https://www.doc.mo.gov

Ascendium Education Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization committed to helping people reach the education and career goals that matter to them. Ascendium invests in initiatives designed to increase the number of learners from low-income backgrounds who complete postsecondary degrees, certificates, and workforce training programs, with an emphasis on first-generation learners, incarcerated adults, rural community members, learners of color, and veterans. Ascendium’s work identifies, validates, and expands best practices to promote large-scale change at the institutional, system, and state levels, with the intention of elevating opportunity for learners from low-income backgrounds. For more information, visit www.ascendiumphilanthropy.org.