Growing Connections

The Prisoner ReEntry Program for Transitional Employment Opportunities

Growing Connections gives parolees a chance to gain experience while working on community and local government projects.

As parolees, Prisoner ReEntry participants face enormous challenges finding employment. The Growing Connections program gives them an opportunity to take an active role in the building of their communities as well as reconnecting to the labor market.

During the eight months since the program's inception, 29 individuals have gained valuable job training while earning minimum wage and working under the direct supervision of a Crew Leader. That supervisor is trained in both construction and criminal justice programming. As a result, participants learn firsthand carpentry, interior finishing, landscaping, and customer service skills. In addition to earning minimum wage for their work, participants also benefit learning how to plan, organize, and carry out all the tasks necessary to see a work project through to completion and quality results. Participants take these valuable skills with them into future job environments for continued success.

In order to secure a position on a Growing Connections work crew, participants compete with one another in a formal job application and interview process. They must prepare resumes, complete applications, and pass a team interview conducted by a panel including the crew supervisor, the program director, and their parole agent. This experience is designed to give participants practice using job search skills they have learned working with Prisoner ReEntry Career Counselors at Northwest Michigan Works!

Each week, the Crew Leader reviews the performance of each crew member and provides documentation of job performance and competencies. These reviews are shared with participants, Prisoner ReEntry Career Counselors at Michigan Works!, and parole agents. This allows program participants to learn from immediate feedback and make any necessary changes in order to improve the quality of their work and probability of success in future employment.

Since the beginning of Growing Connections, 50 percent of all participants have secured employment after completing the program. Two of them have gone on to register and form their own businesses as handymen. Each of those has received additional training to help them manage and grow a business. Both have experienced success in the form of new customer referrals based on the reputations for providing reliable and quality work.

Past projects include building trails for parks and nature centers, site preparation and construction for playgrounds, rough carpentry, hanging drywall, finish carpentry, interior painting, clearing timber and removing invasive species.

As continued funding becomes available for the program, administrators will increase the number of projects, and include as many workers necessary to complete them throughout the 10 county region Growing Connections serves.