Corporate Coalition of Chicago

The Corporate Coalition's June meeting on #FairChanceHiring at North Lawndale Employment Network was featured in the Chicago Tribune by Darcel R. The article not only describes the opportunity in hiring #FairChance talent - the roughly 70 million Americans, or 1 in 3 working-age adults in the U.S. who have a criminal record -- but also some of the challenges, and how participants in our June meeting explored those challenges through a re-entry simulation. “When you think about who is disproportionately represented in that 70 million, it’s communities of color,” said Brian Fabes, Corporate Coalition of Chicago managing director. “But it’s just not Black Americans, it’s all Americans. Remember Martha Stewart has a record and people invest in her; golfer Scottie Scheffler has an arrest record. The way we have built up human capital systems in most large corporations and in most of the business world is we have learned how to exclude people, how to screen people out. There’s not this perfect set of people who are waiting for ‘my job.’ This takes work on both sides.” "The movement needs visible commitment by leaders who continue to pound the drum around the importance of hiring and integrating fair chance talent,” according to Stephanie Dolan, Corporate Coalition of Chicago program director for fair chance hiring. One of the efforts Dolan leads is our fair chance hiring cohort, a nine-month-long collaborative where interested employers gather to get guidance on policy and practice changes to hire, retain and advance people who have been involved with the criminal justice system in collaboration with Cara Plus and Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance. #BusinessUNusual #ChallengetheStatusQuo #MoveTheNeedle #Collaboration #Opportunity #UntappedTalent #Access #Opportunity #Equity #Inclusion #BreakdownBarriers #SecondChance #SecondChanceHiring

🚨 Upcoming Event Alert 🚨 Bisnow's South of Roosevelt Event: Building community at the intersection of real estate, policy and urban renewal is just two weeks away on Wednesday, September 18th. Hear from our own Stefanie Hest, Corporate Coalition Senior Director, as well as Corporate Coalition Leadership Council Member, Leon Walker, Managing Partner at DL3 Realty on the Public Investments and Community Opportunity panel. Purchase tickets at the link here https://lnkd.in/e7-pfHen #Chicago #RealEstate #NeighborhoodInvestment #BusinessUNusual #CommunityInvestment #Inclusion #Opportunity #Access #EquityCapital #NeighborhoodDevelopment #CommunityDevelopment #InclusiveDevelopment

Through the Corporate Coalition’s Corporate Connector initiative, Growing Home Inc. was matched with Accenture, a global consulting company and Corporate Coalition member, eager to leverage its resources and expertise to support the nonprofit’s mission. Melvin Flowers - Chicago, Accenture’s Global Legal Lead – Governance & Risk – Data Privacy, worked closely with Growing Home to identify their most pressing needs and how Accenture could meet them.   Through their work with Growing Home, Accenture’s employees have developed new skills while using their expertise for a meaningful purpose. “You’ve got to bring interesting programming that people are passionate about, and you’ve got to shape it so they can do it easily,” Flowers said.   "To me, this partnership, this connection that we’ve made, is so impactful,” said Janelle St. John, Executive Director of Growing Home Inc. Michael Chiappetta The Corporate Connector, an initiative of the Corporate Coalition of Chicago, is uniting companies with nonprofits and small businesses to advance equity. When we align corporate expertise with community needs, both parties grow—and so does #Chicago. Read more below! https://lnkd.in/eER2TVNQ #NeighborhoodDevelopment #Partnership #CommunityInvestment #Corporations #BusinessUNusual #Englewood #SouthSide #LegalExpertise #CorporateConnector

I'm excited to facilitate a conversation with Marcos Gonzales, Kristie Conklin and Sarah Klebo at the National Fund for Workforce Solutions' SHIFT conference in Memphis on September 25th! We will highlight the work Chicagoland Workforce Funder Alliance, Corporate Coalition of Chicago and Cara Plus have been creating with employers in the Generation Work™ Challenge - implementing pilots centered around inclusive hiring and building a more resilient workplace. Have you registered for the conference yet? Hope to see you there! #WorkforceWednesday #CollectiveImpact #WorkforceDevelopment #InclusiveHiring #ResilientWorkplaces https://lnkd.in/gQ-aDXiq

Great to see Green Era Chicago Campus, a project supported by the Corporate Connector, on the local news! Green Era has transformed a vacant brownfield in Auburn Gresham into a massive anaerobic digestor producing renewable energy and compost, as well as an urban farming campus with a community education center. We are proud to work alongside Green Era to help rescue corporate generated food waste from the landfill and instead recycle it at their innovative facility. Watch to learn more! #Chicago #AuburnGresham #RenewableEnergy #AnerobicDigestor #Compost #GreenJobs #GreenEconomy #BusinessUNusual #JobCreation #SouthSide #Innovation #UrbanFarming

We're delighted our own Managing Director Brian Fabes will be joining Crain's Chicago Business at their Equity event on September 19 as a member of their panel. The panel will dive into the state of DEI initiatives, uncover the bottom-line benefits, and explore future trends. Don’t miss this chance to stay ahead in the DEI conversation! Buy Tickets: https://lnkd.in/edHxsS_G   #DEI #Diversity #Equity #Inclusion #Opportunity #Access #Chicago #Leadership #BusinessUNusual  

"People who have been justice-impacted need employers but we need them too." - Expert advisor to the Corporate Coalition's Fair Chance Hiring initiative and Untapped Talent author Jeffrey Korzenik says it best. Reach out to our own Stephanie Dolan to learn more about how your company can recruit and retain individuals from this untapped talent pool. #fairchancehiring #fairchance #secondchancehiring #Chicago #hiring #untappedtalent #BusinessUNusual #practicechange #inclusion #access #equity #diversity #opportunity

The Corporate Coalition of Chicago applauds Governor JB Pritzker and Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias for passing this important bill that makes it easier for individuals leaving or jails and prisons to get a state ID across Illinois -- a key resource needed for housing, jobs, and more. As Giannoulias shares: "We take our IDs for granted, but for people leaving jail, it’s an essential tool for reentry to perform everyday tasks and increase the likelihood of successfully building a productive life.” https://lnkd.in/gc46uxHf

Members of the Corporate Coalition share a vision of a corporate culture in Chicago where leaders understand that reducing inequities is essential to their business success and to a thriving regional economy, leading them to challenge business as usual in the way they invest, operate, and govern. Hear from one of our members, Teresa Wilton Harmon, Co-Managing Partner of Chicago Office and Global Finance Partner for Sidley Austin LLP on the value the Corporate Coalition provides. #BusinessUNusual #Chicago #leadership #MoveTheNeedle #Change #BusinessProcessChange #CivicLeadership #opportunity #access #equity #inclusion #CollectiveAction

An important component of our Fair Chance Hiring cohort is learning from companies who hire from this talent pool and engaging with thought leaders on this topic. During our July cohort meeting, our partner, Liana Bran from Cara Plus, led a "fireside chat" with Dr. Bria Hoosier, CEO and Founder of Dr. Bria Consulting. Dr. Bria shared some tactical advice on how to bring fair chance hiring to life at our cohort members' organizations, and gave them a framework to keep in mind through their journey: "Fair chance hiring success is a journey through three stages: GRIND (state your goals and build an evidence-based strategy to actualize it), GRIT (operationalize your strategy and evaluate its effectiveness), and GREATNESS (experience the positive ROI for your organization and scale to impact more lives). No matter your current stage, you're in a good place!"