2021 Formerly Incarcerated
Virtual Interview

Collaborator

You work with who?! Hiring formerly incarcerated people? What is that?

My undergrad was in social cultural anthropology. So everything that's related to humans and how we connect and bond with each other, that's like really my jam. And it does say a little bit about the work that I do now in, diversity and inclusion and just thinking about what does our lives look like if we have all different types of people, and how do we kind of include them and be supportive of them. While I was at VICE media, I launched an apprenticeship program that focuses on hiring people that had been formerly incarcerated that was really designed around how can we bring folks in, make them the most successful and really remove barriers. After I left VICE, I started my consultancy, Alex Love Consulting. And so, what I do with DEI is really bring a lot of education and awareness. So that we can have more meaningful and deep conversations about the systems of oppression that we find [LAUGH] ourselves experiencing. And really illuminating those so that we can come together as individuals, as communities and really start to work against some of these things because we are more alike than we are different. And we are all trying to do the same thing. We are just trying to live our best lives. 

Alex Love Highlight

Folks are really trying and I think that, unfortunately, there are times when employers have these policies that they haven't looked at for years. They don't even realize that they have created a barrier for folks. Or they haven't really thought through, why they have background checks or they haven't thought through what the experiences to go through their application. And really understand what it feels like to have to check a box and have to disclose things on an application, right. What that must feel like when you just wanna go work and do the job, right. And so I think what I tried to do is really challenge those leaders to go back and look, let's be really thoughtful. Let's ask those questions. Why do we have these policies? Can we do better? And a lot of times the answer is yes. So that's at least hopeful and very encouraging that a lot of times folks just need to take another look and sometimes being more inclusive and more supportive of folks. It's not that hard. It's just sometimes a little bit of intention and it just feels like a win win. 

Conflict

Self-Reflection

Societal Pressures

Inclusivity Requires Intention

What prompted you to just, I'm gonna do this myself, I'm gonna start my own thing. &gt;&gt; I think I have a lot of opinions, and what really interests me is I really like to have the biggest impact that I can. So that's part of the reason why I focus on policies and procedures in my consulting work. But I felt that if I wasn't in house if I wasn't at one employer one job, but if I could consult multiple employers in different organizations in different capacities. That I could make a bigger impact and really share the knowledge and expertise that I have with more people. Because I would like to think that I get people thinking and so what I do with DEI is really bring a lot of education and awareness. So that we can have more meaningful and deep conversations about the systems of oppression that we find ourselves experiencing. And really Illuminating those so that we can come together as individuals as communities and really start to work against some of these things. But I think if we're not talking about it, if we're not being trained on some of these terms and discovering and learning cuz is part of it, we're not gonna go anywhere and nothing's really gonna change. And I think that there's really an intersection with this work around fair chance hiring and diversity, equity and inclusion and really making sure that we are creating these environments for people where they will be successful. And I think a lot of times it comes down to have you been thoughtful. Have you thought through what the experience of someone is gonna be when they walk in through your doors? And have you thought about maybe all of the barriers that they might be facing that you didn't have to face. And so I think there's a muscle that I try to build around, how do you consider other people that have different experiences other than yourself? 

Support & Encouragement

Having Important Conversations About Systems Of Oppression

Am originally from California, Southern California, specifically from a military town, which meant that I grew up around all different types of people. And I did not realize how that's not usual until I left it came back, but it does say a little bit about the work that I do now in diversity and inclusion. And just thinking about what does our lives look like if we have all different types of people, and how do we kind of include them and be supportive of them. I went to college at NYU, my undergraduate was in social cultural anthropology. So everything that's related to humans and how we have culture, how we connect and bond with each other, that's really my jam. &gt;&gt; That's awesome, so, you had a career advice media? &gt;&gt; Yes, I did. While I was at vice media really focused on HR and really doing a lot of policies and processes. As part of that, I launched an apprenticeship program that focuses on hiring people that had been formerly incarcerated. That was really designed around how can we bring folks in, make them the most successful and really remove barriers. I really wanted to be intentional about how we were supporting folks. And so compensation was one of it. I wanted to make sure that folks had benefits because a lot of times when we have temporary programs, they don't offer benefits. And they're kinda hope you can figure it out for the next couple of months. And it's just like, folks don't have resources and access like that all the time. And if we want folks to be the most successful and most productive, we have to give them those resources. And so additionally, on top of benefits, one of the other things that was really important to me was to make sure that there was all of these opportunities to learn. Not only about the role that they have, but also different departments in the business so that they could understand all of the different ways in which their skills could be applied. I think that there's a lot of times where we don't even know what the opportunity is because we've never heard about it before. After I left vice, I started my consultancy, Alex love consulting that focuses on human resources and diversity, equity inclusion consulting. That's a lot of words to basically say I help organizations and employers to create more inclusive and more supportive environments for employees. And that kind of leads to my other work that is very specifically focused on fair chance hiring. I am also a partner at level set and level set is a collective of folks that specifically focus on fair chance hiring. And we consult employers on how to be more inclusive, not only how to change policy and procedure, but also how do you set up pilot programs, that attract folks and support, folks from this population. 

My Career Path

So you do so much and you give so much of yourself, Alex. What do you want your legacy to be? &gt;&gt; I would almost, I don't wanna say this and talk myself out of a job. But it's almost like I would love this to exist without me, as if it's not fair chance hiring, it's just hiring, right? We just are more inclusive and supportive. And I don't have to have all these one on one conversations with people where I have to ask them, have you really thought about this? And so I think if I could give anything that lives beyond me, I think just for folks to be more thoughtful about other people that have different experiences. Because we are more alike than we are different, and we are all trying to do the same thing. We are just trying to live our best lives. 

Goals

Values

Leaving A Legacy Of Inclusivity

As I navigate through this process and I have different job interviews, I found sometimes that people just aren't aware of the mindsets. They aren't aware of the different gaps for so many different groups of marginalized people. And it's important to have those conversations. &gt;&gt; Everybody's kind of on a different understanding and different path and their awareness around all of the different challenges and barriers that people that have been recently released face. I think that there's just the lack of understanding. And I think that it's really important that we just continue to have these conversations, continue to bring people in, regardless of where they are kind of on that awareness and just meet them where they are. Bring them in and try to get them on the path of we're all working towards the same thing and making sure that folks feel supported in the work that they're doing. I think what keeps me going a quote, is do what you can where you are. Because we are all at different places. We all have different contexts and privilege and resources and access and the only way that we can move anything is together. And so really doing what you can with whatever your context is, whatever you have access to whoever you can talk to, whoever you can support. And If everyone just kind of has their passion in their sphere and continues to push, I think we'll get there 

Character

Determination

Individualism

Do What You Can Where You Are

I'm originally from California, Southern California, specifically from a military town, which meant that I grew up around all different types of people. And I did not realize how that's not usual until I left and came back. But it does say a little bit about the work that I do now in diversity and inclusion and just thinking about what does our lives look like if we have all different types of people. And how do we kind of include them and be supportive of them. I went to college at NYU, my undergrad was in social cultural anthropology. So everything that's related to humans and how we have culture, how we connect and bond with each other, that's really my jam. &gt;&gt; That's awesome, so, you had a career at VICE Media? &gt;&gt; Yes, I did. While I was at VICE Media, I really focused on HR and really doing a lot of policies and processes. As part of that, I launched an apprenticeship program that focuses on hiring people that had been formerly incarcerated that was really designed around how can we bring folks in, make them the most successful and really remove barriers. I really wanted to be intentional about how we were supporting folks. And so compensation was one of it. I wanted to make sure that folks had benefits because a lot of times when we have temporary programs, they don't offer benefits. And they're kinda like, hope you can figure it out for the next couple of months. And it's just like folks don't have resources and access like that all the time. And if we want folks to be the most successful and most productive, we have to give them those resources. And so, additionally, on top of benefits, one of the other things that was really important to me was to make sure that there was all of these opportunities to learn, not only about the role that they had, but also different departments in the business. So that they could understand all of the different ways in which their skills could be applied. I think that there's a lot of times where we don't even know what the opportunity is cuz we've never heard about it before. After I left VICE, I started my consultancy, Alex Love Consulting, that focuses on human resources and diversity, equity and inclusion consulting. That's a lot of words to basically say I help organizations and employers to create more inclusive and more supportive environments for employees. And that kinda leads to my other work that is very specifically focused on fair chance hiring. I am also a partner at Levelset. And Levelset is a collective of folks that specifically focus on fair chance hiring. And we consult employers on how to be more inclusive, not only how to change policies and procedures, but also how do you set up pilot programs that attract folks and support folks from this population. &gt;&gt; What prompted you to just, I'm gonna do this myself, I'm gonna start my own thing? &gt;&gt; I think I have a lot of opinions. And what really interests me is I really like to have the biggest impact that I can. So that's part of the reason why I focus on policies and procedures in my consulting work. But I felt if I wasn't in-house, if I wasn't at one employer, one job, but if I could consult multiple employers in different organizations in different capacities, that I could make a bigger impact. And really share the knowledge and expertise that I have with more people. Because I would like to think that I get people thinking, and so what I do with DEI is really bring a lot of education and awareness so that we can have more meaningful and deep conversations about the systems of oppression that we find ourselves [LAUGH] experiencing. And really illuminating those so that we can come together as individuals, as communities, and really start to work against some of these things. But I think if we're not talking about it, if we're not being trained on some of these terms and discovering and learning cuz it's part of it, we're not gonna go anywhere and nothing's really gonna change. And I think that there's really an intersection with this work around fair chance hiring and diversity, equity and inclusion and really making sure that we are creating these environments for people where they will be successful. And I think a lot of times it comes down to, have you been thoughtful. Have you thought through what the experience of someone is going to be when they walk into your doors? And have you thought about maybe all of the barriers that they might be facing that you didn't have to face? And so I think there's a muscle that I try to build around how do you consider other people that have different experiences other than yourself? &gt;&gt; So you do so much and you give so much of yourself, Alex, what do you want your legacy to be? &gt;&gt; I would almost, I don't want to say this and talk myself out of a job, but it's almost I would love this to exist without me as if it's not fair chance hiring, it's just hiring, right? We just are [LAUGH] more inclusive and supportive and I don't have to have all these one on one conversations with people where I have to ask them, have you really thought about this? And so I think if I could give anything that lives beyond me, I think just for folks to be more thoughtful about other people that have different experiences. Because we are more alike than we are different, and we are all trying to do the same thing. We are just trying to live our best lives. 

Alex Love

Collaborator

Videos

Alex Love

Milestones

Education

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Business

Entrepreneurship

Helping People

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Society in General:

Alex Love

Collaborator

Videos

Alex Love

Milestones

Education

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Business

Entrepreneurship

Helping People

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Society in General:

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