The Workforce Advancement Hub is home to Parole Project’s employment and career initiatives, connecting people returning from incarceration with support, training, and job opportunities while helping employers build successful second chance strategies.
We help participants identify their skills and career goals, prepare for the workplace, access training and credentials, connect with employers, and pursue career pathways that provide long-term stability and economic mobility while responding to the workforce needs of Louisiana employers.
From career planning and training to employment, retention, and advancement, the Hub provides support across multiple stages of a participant’s career journey.
About the Workforce Advancement Hub
Parole Project believes successful reentry should lead not just to a job, but to the opportunity to build a career.
Through the Workforce Advancement Hub, we work with people before and after release to identify their skills, experience, and career goals. We connect participants with employers, education and training opportunities, industry-recognized credentials, and other resources that can help them enter and advance in the workforce.
We also work directly with employers and industry partners to understand workforce needs, identify qualified candidates, strengthen second chance hiring practices, and support employees after they are hired.
Building a Second Chance Workforce Network
The Workforce Advancement Hub builds on work Parole Project is already doing with people returning from incarceration, employers, education and training providers, industry partners, and reentry organizations.
Through these partnerships, we help participants prepare for employment, connect with training and credentials, access job opportunities, and receive support after they begin working. At the same time, we work with employers to understand workforce needs, identify qualified candidates, strengthen second chance hiring practices, and support successful retention.
This approach is already helping people enter the workforce, build careers, and succeed after release. The Workforce Advancement Hub allows us to strengthen these connections, expand access to training and career pathways, and grow the network of employers and workforce partners creating meaningful second chance opportunities across Louisiana.
The Hub serves as a connector between people returning from incarceration and the employers, training providers, industry partners, and reentry supports that can help them build lasting careers.
How It Works
Our workforce staff work with participants to develop individualized career plans based on their experience, skills, interests, training, career goals, and potential barriers to employment.
Depending on the individual, that may include career planning, résumé and interview preparation, workplace-readiness support, occupational training, industry credentials, connections to employers, or preparation for a specific career pathway.
Whenever possible, career planning and workforce preparation begin before release, allowing participants to identify goals, prepare for employment, and begin making connections to training and career opportunities before returning home.
Our involvement does not end when someone is hired. We continue supporting participants as they establish themselves in the workforce, develop additional skills, pursue advancement, and build toward long-term career and financial stability.
Career Assessment and Planning
→ Preparation and Training
→ Credentials
→ Employer Connections
→ Employment
→ Retention
→ Additional Skills and Training
→ Career Advancement
→ Economic Mobility
Career Training and Advancement
A first job after release can be an important starting point, but our goal is long-term economic mobility. Parole Project works to connect participants with training, industry-recognized credentials, apprenticeships, continuing education, and other career pathways that can increase their skills and earning potential over time.
We work with employers, industry partners, and education and training providers to identify opportunities that align participants’ career goals with skills and credentials that are valued in the labor market.
Parole Project also works with education and training providers to help participants access programs that build marketable skills, lead to recognized credentials, and create opportunities for career advancement. Our goal is not simply employment. We want participants to have opportunities to increase their skills, earning potential, financial stability, and ability to advance over time.
Employer Partnerships
Employers are essential partners in successful reentry. Parole Project works with businesses to identify workforce needs, connect them with qualified candidates, prepare participants for workplace expectations, and provide ongoing support after someone is hired.
Employer input also helps inform career preparation and training so that participants are developing skills that reflect real workforce needs.
We also help employers better understand second chance hiring and develop practices that allow them to successfully recruit, hire, retain, and advance people returning from incarceration.
Our goal is to build employer relationships that create opportunities not only for hiring, but also for employee retention, skills development, and career advancement
Supporting Success Beyond the Job
Because barriers outside of work can affect success on the job, Workforce Advancement Hub participants can also access Parole Project’s broader reentry supports, including case management, housing, transportation, life-skills programming, peer support, behavioral health resources, and assistance addressing other barriers to employment.
Who We Serve
The Workforce Advancement Hub serves people preparing to return home from incarceration as well as formerly incarcerated people working to establish or advance their careers. Services and eligibility vary based on individual needs, location, career goals, and available opportunities.
We work with participants at different stages of their employment journey from preparing for a first job after release to developing new skills and pursuing long-term career advancement. Services are not limited to securing a first job after release. The Hub can also help participants build new skills, pursue credentials, identify better employment opportunities, and advance within their careers.
Our ABC's: A Job, Better Job, Career
Our goal is to help every participant move into a meaningful career as quickly as possible. For some, that can happen immediately. For others, the path may begin with a job, lead to a better job, and ultimately result in a career with greater stability, earning potential, and opportunities for advancement.
We believe getting people into the workforce quickly is important for long-term success. Employment provides structure, income, recent work experience, and an opportunity to demonstrate reliability while a participant continues working toward a longer-term career goal.
Sometimes there is a gap between release and the right career opportunity. A participant may be waiting to receive a TWIC card, complete a training program, earn an industry credential, gain additional experience, or demonstrate a strong work record before an employer is ready to hire them into a particular position.
In those situations, transitional or interim employment can provide an important bridge. The goal is not simply to place someone in any job and stop there. We continue working with participants to build skills, overcome barriers, pursue better opportunities, and move toward the career that best fits their goals and abilities.
OUR ABC’S
A JOB
Immediate entry into the workforce
BETTER JOB
Greater stability, skills, pay, or opportunity
CAREER
Long-term growth, advancement, and economic mobility
How Everyone Benefits
Successful workforce reentry requires more than connecting someone with a job opening. Participants may need career preparation, training, transportation, housing stability, workplace support, and help addressing other barriers that can interfere with employment. The Workforce Advancement Hub connects career services with Parole Project’s broader reentry supports so participants have the foundation needed to enter the workforce, succeed at work, and continue advancing.
For Participants
Participants receive support to prepare for employment, develop new skills, earn credentials, connect with employers, succeed on the job, and pursue opportunities for long-term career advancement and financial stability
For Employers
Employers gain access to prepared and motivated candidates while working with a trusted partner that can assist with recruitment, candidate preparation, second chance hiring strategies, and ongoing support after employment begins.
For Communities
When people returning from incarceration have meaningful opportunities to enter the workforce, develop skills, and build careers, the benefits extend beyond the individual. Stable employment strengthens families, expands the workforce, supports economic mobility, reduces idle time, and contributes to safer communities.