Workforce, Inc.
The mission of Workforce, Inc. is to strengthen central Indiana communities by helping local employers build a better workforce. Workforce, Inc. uses a sector-based approach to workforce development – a strategy that maximizes the attachment to the workforce desired for participants. Participants take part in training and work experience that is focused on skills for sectors that can provide lasting employment at self-sufficient wages. Workforce, Inc. is achieving its primary goals of reducing electronic waste by recycling materials such as steel, copper and aluminum so these can be made into new materials and remaking the lives of its participants by helping them make the difficult transition from incarceration back into civil society.
Workforce, Inc is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that helps ex-offenders transition back into the community through job training and important practical support, such as housing and legal assistance. Through the process of de-manufacturing computers, then packing and shipping the resulting e-waste, participants learn to use a variety of tool pack/weigh materials, solve problems, load and unload trucks and pallets, as well as how to safely operate machinery such as forklifts and balers.
Workforce, Inc. is structured as a social enterprise – a business with a social mission. At the center of WFI's program stands employment. Every program participant receives a job and a paycheck – real money for real work – and the dignity that goes along with employment. Employment is coupled with a suite of wraparound services and supports, such as driver license re-instatement, bus passes, housing assistance, budgeting/financial literacy, and access to various educational opportunities; and trainings that lead to workplace certifications that are transferrable to a variety of industries.