Cascade Engineering Selected to Implement Ex-Offender Reintegration Program

New Collaborative Strategy Wins One of Only 10 U.S.-Sponsored Grants

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Dec. 29, 2005 – Cascade Engineering announced today that it has been selected to help implement a new program designed to reintegrate West Michigan ex-offenders into the local workforce. Cascade will provide specialized training sessions and employment opportunities as part of its participation in the new “Re-Entry Roundtable of Kent County,” which is funded by a $495,000 U.S. Department of Labor grant recently awarded to Michigan Works’ Area Community Services Employment and Training Council (ACSET), and involves a broad array of community agencies and area employers.

Cascade played a key role in developing the program in collaboration with nearly 60 human services, faith-based, business and government organizations; the program has received one of only ten such grants awarded nationally, out of a total pool of approximately 500 applicants. Cascade and the program’s other collaborators have recognized that ex-offenders are an under-utilized segment in Kent County’s workforce, and that reducing recidivism can help curb longer-term corrections costs. Nationally, Michigan ranks among the top ten states in corrections spending; total statewide incarceration costs are $28,000 per person annually. The re-entry program’s specific goals include employing more than 300 ex-offenders at participating companies in West Michigan, achieving an employment retention rate of at least 80 percent for six months, and reducing recidivism from nearly 50 percent to 33 percent by December 2006.
“The re-entry program is a smart, collaborative approach that goes to the heart of Cascade’s commitment to building both economic and social capital,” said Fred Keller, Cascade Engineering’s Chairman and CEO. “In addition to its clear benefit to employers – including low turnover rates, higher productivity and tax credit opportunities – the community at large benefits from reduced crime, more skilled workers, an expanded tax base and generally improved quality of life.”

Beginning in January, Cascade will provide both the curriculum and instructors from its engineering staff for a series of ex-offender training sessions to be held at Michigan Works’ Sheldon Complex, located at 121 Franklin SE. Session topics will include the key habits for success, conflict resolution and team problem solving, “hidden rules” in the workplace, diversity awareness, money management and the concept of lean enterprise. The achievement of individual participants will be continually evaluated using specific competency measures; employment placement will be based on certification by employer auditors. Cascade’s involvement will tap the expertise of two key areas of its broader operations – the company’s ongoing “Cascade Engineering University” workplace training program and its successful Welfare-to-Career initiative, which has long been a model for helping the chronically unemployed find promising careers.

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