U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh visited Philander Smith College Wednesday to announce a $2 million grant for the Little Rock Workforce Development Board — one of 18 organizations to receive a grant nationwide.
In total, $50.6 million of the federal funding — Pathway Home grants — will “provide training and employment services to adults reentering the workforce following incarceration in a local jail or state correctional facility,” according to a press release.
“These grants will help people who are working for second chances,” Walsh said. “They’re about reducing crime. They’re also about meeting the needs of the local labor markets, like here, in Little Rock.”
The grant is meant to provide training and employment services to incarcerated people who are 20 to 270 days from release. It’s also aimed at improving the coordination of the re-entry process through apprenticeship programs and paid, on-the-job training for new employees.
Dozens of Arkansas business leaders gathered before Walsh, Mayor Frank Scott Jr. and Jay Chesshir, president and CEO of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, at the Philander Smith College. At-Large Little Rock Director Antwan Phillips and Bryan Day, executive director of the Port of Little Rock, were also present.
Walsh posed conversations of equitable opportunities for veteran, women, rural and minority communities at the historically Black, four-year liberal arts institution. He also reflected on his own experience as the son of immigrant parents, a college drop-out and former mayor of Boston.
“We realize today that we need pathways to college,” Walsh said. “But we also need pathways to careers.”
The Pathway Home grants are part of the Good Jobs Initiative, the Biden administration’s effort to improve job quality nationwide. Walsh highlighted the need to provide second chances for previously-incarcerated residents.
“I’ve seen it first-hand,” Walsh said. “If you take somebody that was formerly incarcerated or involved in criminal activity, and you give them a good job — not a $7 an hour job, a good job making $20 an hour — you’re going to see all of the work that they did to survive in the street, they’re going to put it toward their career.”
