To succeed, it is crucial for people impacted by the legal system to develop networks, says Terrell Blount, MPA, executive director of Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FICGN), an organization whose “mission is to support formerly incarcerated individuals in their academic and career pursuits.”
Blount joined me for an interview at WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons in Washington, D.C.
He addresses the importance of available resources for people once they re-enter. “In order to receive information and resources that can possibly help individuals, I think the first thing that comes to mind is that there has to be an increase in the level of trust.” But Blount adds, “How we get there is a very different conversation.”
Blount continues, “The second thing that comes to mind is the information is normally either incorrect or outdated. And whichever path you choose, I think it’s a matter of making sure that we have information that is not old.
“Things are changing quicker nowadays, more than ever. So, the organizations that are doing the work in reentry that can provide housing resources, lead people to using government benefits, or even if you’re talking about returning to school and completing a college degree –having the right type of information, the contact. It is a path forward into making sure that people are receiving correct information from a source that they trust.”
He also points out, “It’s important that employers, corrections, colleges, anyone working in this space to really be intentional about humanizing people who are a part of the system and who have experienced the system. Quite often we hear language such as ‘offender, inmate, or convict’ and there’s a strong push to move away from that language. It encourages the stigmatization of people with lived experience.”
Learn more about the Formerly Incarcerated College Graduates Network (FIGGN).
WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons 2024 was made possible through funding from EnGen.
© Copyright 2024 by Structural Unemployment, LLC dba WorkingNation
Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
