As part of its ongoing efforts, on June 8, the Mon Valley Initiative, with support from the Allegheny County Anchored Re-Entry Consortium and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Re-Entry Coalition, hosted its Leadership & Empowerment Conference at the Community College of Allegheny County.
College President Quintin Bullock, DDS, said the conference and the issues it seeks to address are important.
“When you think about this population, it is important for us to look for new and innovative ways to assist and promote practices that provide opportunities for them to advance and grow,” he said. “We have to embrace an entrepreneurial spirit and provide a basic educational foundation to allow them to advance businesses in their areas of interest.”
(Photos by J.L. Martello)
The event included presentations by Allegheny County Public Defender Elliot Howsie and Duquesne University Law Professor Tracy McCants Lewis on getting criminal records sealed, expunged or even vacated by a governor’s pardon. Multiple social service offices were also there to address needs such as housing, transportation and childcare, as were several employers who were accepting resumes and scheduling interviews.
But this conference also featured something most don’t—a major success story. He is Tracey D. Syphax, who gave the keynote address.
Thirty years ago, Syphax was an addict and drug dealer in Trenton, N.J. Today, he sits atop a multi-million-dollar real estate and development business. He chronicled his journey in the book, “From the Block to the Boardroom.” Since being named a White House “Champion of Change” in 2014 and the Empower Magazine “Person of the Year” in 2017, he has been a vocal advocate for reforming the process through which former offenders re-enter society.
Tracey Reaves, MVI workforce development director, said when she met Syphax at a Penn State conference, he jumped at the opportunity to speak at her event.
“This was geared for the public, people looking to get from point A to point B,” she said. “I feel what he had to say was life-changing, and I wanted something that would impact their lives in a significant way.”
Syphax said his story isn’t unique, but having succeeded after addiction, two prison terms for drug possession and sales, and getting shot, his determination to “help others who’ve traveled that road less traveled get to the same place,” might be quite unique.
When he came out of prison for the last time in 1993, he worked his way up from laborer to supervisor in less than three years. When he decided he want to go on his own, that first employer continued to advise him and gave him subcontracting work for years afterwards.
“With that, doing side jobs, and investing it back into the business, within five years I went from zero to $1 million,” he said. “That’s when I had a revelation—some of our best talent, some of our successful people who could run Fortune 500 companies are languishing in our prisons. And they’re coming home every year, about 700,000 are released back into communities every year. And we need to see that they need to be coming to rooms like this.”
Syphax also said he is passing it along—his first 17 employees were ex-offenders, and in 2014 he and 30 other businesses created the Fair Chance Business Pledge, all committed to hiring ex-offenders. As of now, more than 400 companies have signed on.
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