Key Facts

Location: Cincinnati, OH

Partners: Nehemiah Manufacturing and Cincinnati Works

Summary: Nehemiah Manufacturing and Beacon of Hope Business Alliance, now Cincinnati Works, engages in “second chance” hiring practices by providing social services and support to workers returning from incarceration.

About

Nehemiah Manufacturing Company is a fully operating for-profit manufacturing plant that has been in business since 2009. Nehemiah owns several brands, including Boogie Wipes, Kandoo, and Sun and Earth, and also packages and manufactures several lines for P&G, such as Downy, Dreft, and Febreeze. From its inception, Nehemiah has practiced what they call “second chance” hiring of hard-to-hire and formerly incarcerated individuals and provides a social support team to help their employees succeed. Today, Nehemiah employs 150 to 180 individuals and about 80 to 85 percent of their workforce is considered second chance.

Nehemiah’s successful program revolves around providing social services and support to individuals returning from incarceration. Nehemiah employs a full-time social service team of three and partners with a host of social service agencies in the Cincinnati area, such as Cincinnati Works, City Link Center, The Life Learning Center (supportive services for “at-risk” individuals), and City Gospel Mission/Jobs Plus. The social support team meets with each new employee to conduct a full assessment of the individual’s immediate barriers to employment.Together they evaluate things like housing stability, available transportation, drug and alcohol issues, mental health issues, and outstanding fees and fines to develop a plan to remove the barriers that have historically kept that individual from holding a job.

In ten years of operating, Nehemiah has maintained a low 15 percent turnover rate, which has helped provide the business justification for the company’s mission-driven focus. Nehemiah attests that their hard-to-hire employees who appreciate the second chance become their most loyal and hard-working employees.

By 2015, Nehemiah was receiving more applicants than they had openings so they created a non-profit, Beacon of Hope Business Alliance, to scale up their efforts and bring other companies interested in practicing second chance hiring together. In August 2019, Beacon of Hope was merged with Cincinnati Works to further scale up this initiative. There are now 80+ companies participating within the Beacon of Hope Business Alliance, like Kroger Manufacturing, JBM Packaging, Holland Roofing, Foxtail Foods, and Batesville Products, Inc., and many other smaller companies. Cincinnati Works places 400+ people in manufacturing, construction and cleaning jobs annually.