A subcommittee of the Blair County Prison Re-entry Coalition and PA CareerLink Blair County are hosting a “fair chance” hiring workshop this month.

“From Hire to Hope” is intended to encourage employers to consider hiring recently released inmates, according to coalition Director Ken Dean, who will moderate a Q&A with a panel of local employers at the event — which will also include talks from Katelyn Urban, program manager of reintegration services at Goodwill of the Southern Alleghenies, and Heather Manges, executive director of the Nehemiah Project.

The workshop will take place from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. in a conference room at the Altoona Blair County Development Corp. headquarters in the Devorris Center for Business Development, 3900 Industrial Park Drive — although there will be online participation, according to coalition member Renee Imgrund of Goodwill.

“We’re hoping we can get employers that will buy in,” Dean said this week. “(Employers) who are willing to work with some of the folks getting out of prison.”

It’s not necessarily an easy sell, given that some employers “may have been burned in the past” by hiring former inmates who weren’t properly prepared for what was expected of them in the workplace, Dean said after the most recent coalition meeting.

“It’s not a given” that people understand such things, Dean said.

The workshop will teach employers about second chance concepts and what supports will be available to help them with second chance hires, according to an event flyer.

There will also be testimony from employers who are making it work “in real time,” according to the flyer.

A long-term goal of the coalition is the establishment of relationships with a pool of employers that represent a variety of industries, so that it will be easier to match the aptitudes and skills of newly released inmates with available work, Dean said.

The need goes both ways, as many employers are struggling to find employees, and most newly released inmates are in need of employment — including those who had work when they went into prison, Dean said.

Ideally, willing employers will connect with employees that can remain with them for extended periods, according to officials.

“Retention is what we’re after,” said Imgrund, a member of the coalition’s Education, Employment & Resources Subcommittee.

For more information, contact Imgrund at rimgrund@gogoodwill.org; or call 814-410-9910.