When Deno Andrews first opened Felony Franks in Chicago, he already knew that ex-offenders could make great employees. Growing up, he saw how hard former prisoners worked in his family’s restaurant supply company. After Felony Frank’s moved to Oak Park in 2016, Andrews remained committed to his idea of employing ex-offenders at his restaurant, but the Oak Park native envisioned something bigger.
In February 2017, he won a $50,000 grant through the Oak Park River Forest Community Foundation’s Big Idea contest. He has put that money to work through his website: www.therescuefoundation.org. Calling the website the first phase of his business plan, Andrews is creating a site that matches job candidates with potential employers.
For Andrews the challenge for ex-offenders begins at the start of their job search. “Even employers who say they don’t have a box on the application about prior felonies are wasting applicants’ time if they still do background checks.”
For someone recently out of prison, he says, money and time are in short supply, and both are needed to travel on public transportation to entry-level jobs. If businesses accept applications from anyone but later require background checks, most ex-offenders don’t make it to a second interview.
Andrews’ website removes that uncertainty from the calculation. “Our candidates know that any interview we send them on, the business has agreed to hire ex-offenders.”
Tana Edmonson, a Felony Franks employee, connected with the restaurant at a job resource center at Triton College. She says, “I had gotten hired in different jobs, but when they found out I was a felon, they wouldn’t hire me.”
Since she began at Felony Franks three years ago, she has a rented an apartment and is able to visit her family in Indiana on a regular basis. Andrews hopes that the website will more easily connect candidates like Edmonson with businesses looking to hire.
Through a questionnaire for both employer and potential employee, the Rescue Foundation aims to surface any potential issues prior to matching a candidate with a potential job. Part of the process is vetting the ex-offender’s crime to determine if the business is an appropriate fit. Another big issue? Timing.
“One of the biggest barriers for getting a job is availability,” says Andrews. “So many of our candidates are single parents and might have restrictions on days or shifts that they can work.”
The website also covers an individual’s personal situation with a list of questions that Andrews says help employers get a bigger picture of the situation. From home security to financial security to child care and addictions, the questionnaire is aimed at assessing whether an applicant is ready for the job market and what type of job might be the best fit.
On the employer side, Andrews reaches out and spend two hours a day, four days a week talking with local businesses about hiring ex-offenders. He offers classes at Felony Franks and is expanding to community centers on the West Side. He will also offer training to employers. “I’ll go in and lecture about the challenges for a business that they might not have considered.”
For example, most businesses pay employees every two weeks. That new hire might not have enough money for a bus card to get to work before the first pay check comes in. Just offering a bus card can make a new hire more reliable.
At the end of the day, Andrews thinks his project has far more long-term implications than just helping ex-offenders get their first entry level job. “We’re teaching networking. One half of our employees have pivoted to better jobs because they learned how to network here. It’s about radical transformations. We’re improving the lives of the ex-offenders with meaningful, good work. The secondary benefit is their offspring. They have a role model at home and learn a work ethic. We could interrupt the cycle of incarceration. That’s my motivation: the ripple effect.”
Other area businesses that employ ex-offenders include Robinson’s Ribs in Oak Park, Uncle Remus Chicken, and Ben’s Ribs in Austin.