One of Barbados’ most unique co-operatives is moving to help former prison inmates secure a second chance in life and boost their job opportunities.
The Alliance of Reform Minded Entrepreneurs (ARME) Cooperative Society Ltd, which has been in existence for five years, is seeking to address the needs and concerns of the formerly incarcerated and help them reintegrate into society.
Yesterday, it held its inaugural regional stakeholder forum at the Baobab Tower in Warrens, St Michael, to tackle a wide range of issues.
“We are the first cooperative in Barbados, and possibly the region, that caters to the formerly incarcerated,” president Glenroy Babb said.
“Some of the aims and goals of ARME are to address the glaring deficiencies that we have as persons who were formerly incarcerated, things such as stigma, a lack of viable employment opportunities, transitional housing, under-education and things that generally affect this segment of society.”
He said one of the major barriers remained finding meaningful employment and needing a police certificate of character.
“[When you are incarcerated] that’s something that’s on your record; it’s a stain. When an employer looks at you, you might have the skills, but at the end of the day, you have that on your record – that can’t change. So a major barrier would be the same certificate of character, where, obviously, most employers now require that you provide a certificate of character.”
To combat this, Babb said they were working on establishing earned rehabilitation eligibility certificates, where a former inmate can earn documentation stating he or she had been rehabilitated.
“When a person has done the necessary things, they receive an earned eligibility certificate. This is a certificate that is given by an institution that shows that this person is technically rehabilitated. In doing that, even with a criminal conviction, they’re able to show that same earned eligibility certificate to a prospective employer,” he said.
The president also floated the idea of an employment incentive for those who employed former inmates. He said it would involve the employer receiving tax benefits, mentioning programmes such as the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which is in place in other jurisdictions.
Babb said earning a liveable wage was vital, as when someone was in a position to do so, the risks they took were minimised and that was especially true for former inmates.
In that regard, he said the alliance was offering its 12 members the opportunity to gain gainful employment through freighting.
“We, as a group, started raising money. We meet every other Monday, so we decided that every time we met, we would put money towards an initiative. Then at the end of the first year, we made a vote as to what initiative it would be, and we voted we wanted a truck,” he said.
The alliance purchased a truck last April and encouraged its members to get a heavy-duty licence. He said they currently engaged in freight services and were talking with contractors to explore employment beyond freighting.
Registrar of Cooperatives in the Ministry of Business, Brent Gittens, pledged Government’s continued support. He said his ministry assisted with financing, media relations, event planning and pointing the group towards opportunities.
“It’s the first cooperative of this kind in Barbados, and we at the Ministry of Energy and Business are striving to assist them as best as we can because we know that these are individuals who would have been written off by society and persons who would not want to give them a second chance. . . . We believe they deserve to be given another opportunity to be reintegrated into society.”
