This Nonprofit Hires Formerly Incarcerated Women To Help Them Develop Career, Soft Skills

America boasts itself as the home of the brave and the land of second chances. People cheer for and are inspired by the underdog. But not all second chances are equal. Not everyone who is granted a second chance has the resources to build a better life. In 2019, the Sentencing Project reported that though many more men are in prison than women, the rate of growth for female imprisonment has been twice as high as that of men since 1980. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, 1.9 million women are released each year from jails and prison. Formerly incarcerated women have higher rates of unemployment and homelessness. Although some prison systems have begun to implement gender-responsive policies and programs, there is more demand than supply.

Tamra Ryan, CEO of the Women’s Bean Project, a 501(c)(3) based in Colorado, hires women with histories of incarceration and homelessness, ex-gang members or former addicts with multiple felonies, and puts them to work manufacturing gourmet food items. The Project is on a mission to change women’s lives by providing stepping stones to self-sufficiency through social enterprise. Additionally, the nonprofit addresses the women participating in the program’s mental, physical and emotional health. 

“We believe all women can transform their lives through employment,” Ryan comments. “That employment really is the key to staying out of prison and breaking out of poverty. We hire women who have experienced chronic unemployment. A typical woman we hire hasn’t had a job longer than a year in her lifetime, though the average age of women we hire is 38. … What’s behind that is long histories of addiction and incarceration and low education levels. About 50% of the women we hire don’t have a GED or diploma—all the things that add up together to the barriers to employment. That also includes soft skills like problem-solving, and goal setting and planning and organizing.”

The seven-month program offers on-the-job training as a production assistant in the food manufacturing business, career services, classroom work that focuses on life skills and individualized case management. 

“Our whole goal is to have them work for us as an on-ramp into mainstream employment,” she continues to explain. “So they’re going to work for us and learn the skills of coming to work every day on time, and basic computer skills, attention to detail and problem solving, and a whole bunch of skills that don’t matter what kind of job you have, they’ll be skills that they need. Then they move on into an entry-level job at the end of their time with us.”

To date, the nonprofit has served 1,000 women. One year after graduating from the program, 95% of women are employed. During the program, the women spend 70% of their paid time working in the business; and 30% of their paid time in program activities working on soft-skills. 

Ryan is the longest-tenured CEO of the nonprofit, serving almost 18 years. Before joining the Project, she worked at an internet company tracking affiliate marketing during the dot-com era. After finishing graduate school, she worked for a subsidiary of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where her team would take concepts out of the medical center and take them to market. That allowed her to take her science background and learn about marketing and business development.

While working for the internet company, Ryan looked for ways to engage with the local community. She began volunteering for the Project on the sales and marketing committee. Six months into volunteering, the CEO position became vacant. 

“I tried to talk a girlfriend of mine into applying for the job,” she laughs. “I went on and on about what a great place it was. And then she said, ‘I don’t understand why you’re not applying.’ My first inclination was no. I’m not a nonprofit person. … I thought about it. I also realized I was at a point professionally where I did want to leave something. So I put my hat in the ring.”

As Ryan transitioned from a private company to a nonprofit, one of the challenges she encountered was becoming comfortable as the face of the organization. Her reign began during a time when being a woman CEO was still uncommon. “In a lot of instances,” she states, “people meet me and make a decision about whether or not they’re going to support the Project. Maybe that’s where the imposter syndrome comes from. It’s keeping my ego in check of understanding my role and how I’m doing my role well. Then also, at the same time, understanding that the moment I begin to think it’s about me, we’re all in trouble.”

Throughout all of Ryan’s pivots, she focuses on the following essential steps:

• Make sure you are working on or towards something that drives your passion. With how much time is spent at work, make sure it makes you happy.
• Pay it forward. There are people who are now where you started. Guide them and show them how they, too, can succeed.
• Develop a growth mindset. To successfully transition in your career is to be open to change. If you’re not willing to change, your circumstances won’t change.

“As I sit across the table from the women we serve, there’s really not much difference between us,” Ryan concludes. “We’ve all made stupid mistakes or decisions, and the outcome for me of some of those stupid decisions because I happen to be born a white, middle-class woman is different than the outcome for others. What that means to me is that that’s very humbling. That I’m not special, but instead, what I have is a responsibility to use my privilege to give voice to others who don’t have a voice, who feel marginalized or are marginalized.”