Launched in October 2019 out of the Obama Foundation Community Leadership Corps, Work Matters is a website focused on combating recidivism.
workmatterschicago.com seeks to streamline the necessary resources and information formerly incarcerated individuals need in gaining employment in one digitally accessible platform.
In partnership with two other team members, River developed Work Matters over a 6 month period comprised of intensive trainings around design impact and community impact strategies as part of The Obama Foundation Community Leadership Corps, in addition to engaging in community research to learn more about the challenges formerly incarcerated people face when returning home, learning that access to employment is a significant barrier to successful re-entry.
FRAMEWORK:
Understanding the multiple factors that contribute to recidivism
PROCESS:
Design and Social Impact Learning, Community Driven Research
GOAL:
Serve as a connector
Launch Event
On October 18th, 2019 the Work Matters team gathered 50+ Chicago community members comprised of community activists, lawyers, formerly incarcerated people, non-profit leaders, and academic scholars to launch workmatterschicago.com . The event gave guests an opportunity to demo the site, provide feedback on the platform design and content, as well as listen to a panel featuring the Community Outreach and Engagement Lead of The North Lawndale Employment Network and a Northwestern University PhD Candidate in Social Policy and Education on the importance on combating recidivism.
Pictured above Work Matters Co-Founders (from left to right) Stephen Chaney, River Bunkley, and Patrick Marstron-Quinn
Why Focus on Recidivism?
The need for radical change in our criminal legal system is evidenced by a myriad of systems, with police brutality, mass incarceration, and the prison industrial complex being the most commonly surfaced examples. Fully understanding the components of criminal justice calls other phenomena into question as well, with recidivism, as the foundation of this project's focus.
Recidivism occurs when an individual repeats an action after they have already experienced negative consequences of committing that act. Within the context of criminal justice, this often looks like a returning citizen, re-offending and committing another crime that results in jail time due to an unsuccessful reentry. Recognizing this system, our team interrogated the "why" behind recidivism, uncovering a series of systemic barriers that prevent successful reentry into society for many returning citizens: lack of access to education and employment, diminished political rights, and social alienation to name a few. Most actionable amongst these, was the lack of channels through which organizations, businesses & individuals seeking to solve the same problems could find each other.
From here, we selected employment as our lever of focus to think through solutions. Upon interrogation of how technology can be leveraged in the criminal justice space, specifically in combating recidivism, Work Matters was born. Although resources exist for facing recidivism at both the institutional and individual level, finding them is difficult. This site aims to collect work already done by established organizations and those looking to hire employees, no matter their record. By collecting the information that has previously existed in different, and often hard to find, locations, we can lower the barrier to smart hiring.