FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 30, 2026

Contact:
Barry Johnson
Email: [email protected]
Cell: 609-414-8890

End Community Violence Now Launches Workforce & Community Safety Alignment Council

With April being ‘Second Chance Month,’ the new Council seeks remove barriers to employment ahead of impending Medicaid work requirements

WILMINGTON – This week, End Community Violence Now (ECVN) announced that it has launched Delaware’s Workforce & Community Safety Alignment Council. This cross-sector leadership body was designed to better align Delaware’s workforce development ecosystem with Community Violence Intervention (CVI) strategies. CVI organizations directly engage individuals who face the highest risk of violence. These same individuals often navigate structural employment barriers.

Made up of more than a dozen public and private organizations, participants in the first meeting included: the Delaware Division of Small Business; Delaware Prosperity Partnership; the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce; the Delaware Workforce Development Board; New Castle Chamber of Commerce; Stanziale Solutions; the Tech Council of Delaware; Tide Shifts Justice Project; Wilmington Alliance; and WSFS Bank.

“As we close out Second Chance Month, we are reminded that reducing violence requires more than intervention – it requires opportunity,” said ECVN executive director Lauren Footman, EdD. “The Workforce & Community Safety Alignment Council is designed to break down barriers to employment and align our systems so that those most impacted by violence have a clear pathway to stability, safety, and long-term success.”

Second Chance Month is a nationwide initiative, founded by the Prison Fellowship in 2017, that seeks to raise awareness about the challenges faced by individuals returning to society after incarceration. Second Chance Month is more than an awareness campaign, this initiative promotes justice reform and encourages public awareness of the challenges faced by returning citizens.

Structural barriers to employment often include having a criminal record. To reduce this barrier Delaware passed the Clean Slate Act in 2021 to automatically clear certain eligible records. But, sometimes passing legislation isn’t enough.

As explained by Lynne Kielhorn from Tide Shift Justice Project, “Clean Slate was supposed to bring immediate relief to nearly 290,000 people, and ongoing relief to countless more. But implementation is failing and hundreds of thousands of Delawareans are still waiting. Since implementation began in August 2024, only a small fraction of eligible cases have actually been expunged. At the current pace, it will take decades to get through the backlog of eligible cases.”

A 2018 report from the Prison Policy Initiative found that formerly incarcerated people face an unemployment rate nearly five times higher than the general U.S. population. Further research has shown that poverty is a major driver of incarceration and recidivism rates while stable employment reduces the risk of violence, increases community stability and safety, strengthens labor force participation and workforce pipelines, improves employer retention outcomes, strengthens economic competitiveness, and reduces public costs. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins’ Center for Gun Violence Solutions, the economic cost of gun deaths in Delaware is estimated at $1.3 billion each year, or roughly $1,236 for every resident in the state. This cost includes immediate and long-term expenses paid by taxpayers including police response, emergency medical care, and related criminal justice and government services, lost tax revenue, incarceration expenses, and victim support services.

Furthermore, the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), which was signed into law in July 2025, will soon require individuals to prove they have been working, going to school, or volunteering for at least one month before they can gain or retain access to Medicaid benefits. Studies have demonstrated that expanding Medicaid benefits often leads to reductions in crime across several categories – including burglary, vehicle theft, homicide, robbery, and assault,

Through quarterly meetings, the Council will be tasked with:

● Facilitating alignment of public, private, and philanthropic capital across workforce and violence prevention strategies

● Creating CVI-to-workforce pipelines focused on job readiness and retention

● Supporting employer-informed, trauma-aware workforce practices

● Developing shared outcome metrics linking employment stability to reductions in violence exposure and justice involvement

● Reducing duplication across funding streams and minimizing policy silos

● Co-designing hiring pathways aligned to industry needs (construction, healthcare, logistics, green infrastructure, public works, manufacturing)

● Expanding fair-chance and second-chance hiring commitments

● Identifying regulatory or policy barriers affecting justice-impacted and high-risk populations

● Promoting trauma-informed and equity-centered workforce standards

● Strengthening coordination between workforce boards, economic development leaders, and CVI ecosystems

Additional information on End Community Violence Now can be found online.

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End Community Violence Now (ECVN) is the state of Delaware’s community-based Office of Violence Prevention. This public-private partnership seeks to break the cycle of violence through coordinated and sustained investments in evidence-based programs. This includes community engagement and education campaigns, policy advocacy, stakeholder strategy, as well as offering technical assistance and grant-making support to local organizations on the ground doing the difficult, but necessary work. ECVN envisions a future where all Delawareans are safe from the rising threat of gun violence.