 I will get started in about a year to learn about employment rights for people with HIV and KB from legal aid and employment. This program is brought to you by the Business Science and Psychology Center. We're located on the 4th floor of the main library. While we're closed to the public, you can reach us through the email, but just email ifcytec.fifthsgmail.org s-v-u-s-s-p-i-s-p-h-f-f-f-f-c-o-f.org. You go to our home page and scroll all the way down to what serves. You'll see two blue tiles, one is for business and finance resources, and one is for job resources. Go ahead and click on the one that you want. In this case, we're talking about jobs. So we're at the jobs and peers resources page. Now, over on the left side, you'll see the red curve is pointing to resources groups. And one of those groups is for re-entry individuals. On that, you'll see that we have a lot of resources that might help you in your job search. In addition, we have a lot of tools that you can use other resources for helping you get a job. So check that out. We also have a lot of databases that can help you gain skills, computer skills. All of these databases, or many of them, offer coaching on interviewing and job resumes and other things. So please check out our databases. There's a lot of skills that you can pick up from them. Three is with your library. We have a lot of programs coming up. Visit pl.org or slash event. Do check out our program. On Thursday, we have Nathan for job search part one. This is a pretty girl review of how to build your LinkedIn. On Tuesday, the 16th, we have SFP serve first impressions program. This program that helps people who are over 50 and have a lot of job experience that helps with the nonprofit to get work. On Tuesday, we have Nathan profile tips for the job search as well. So this is another one that you can gain a lot of skills to get more LinkedIn for building your books in your job search. On the 18th person, we have a presentation from the employment department. Our smart money coaching is offering a free webinar to March 31st. When you can learn how to manage your daily expenses or learn about investments and experiments. I wanted to let you know that we have a lot of tasks. I will send these slides out to you so you can get the information off your head. Also, Asian American community targeted for people scamming them. So we wanted to include this information for so that you are aware that this is a free space. We do have limited library service. All the library is closed to public. All of our locations are open. See which ones are offering it. You can read the materials from the library and pick them up with that. I will turn over to you. Thanks so much. And I'm going to go ahead and get my screen sharing going here. So welcome everyone. We are excited to be here to talk to you about employment for people with conviction histories. My name is Stacy. I am a staff attorney at legal aid at work which is a nonprofit here in San Francisco that does all employment related issues. This is a very personal issue to me. I have had several family members who have been in and out of prison. Most of us had to work and find work after being released and experience barriers because of that. I will pass it over to my colleague, Katie. Good morning, everybody. Thank you so much for getting up early and joining us this good old day. And again, like I said, my name is Katie. It's Katie Dixon. I go by she, her. And as you guys can see, I'm the Fair Chance community organizer with legal aid at work. I've been doing this for, I don't know, going on two, three years. Now I've been here a little over a year. I'm formerly incarcerated. I have spent the number of years in and locked in and out of the system. And I believe in this work right here because I definitely believe in employment and I believe that, you know, a stable healthy job is definitely critical for us to get back on our feet. Thank you. So with that, we're going to go ahead and jump right in and feel free, you know, we're a small group, so feel free to drop questions into the chat as we go and we'll try to answer them and we're also going to save some time at the end to answer any questions. So we're going to talk mainly today about the California Fair Chance Act, which is a law in California. Before we jump into what that law says I want to recognize that this law was actually a product of organizing by directly impacted folks led by a group called all of us are none, which is a grassroots, a grassroots group made up of formerly incarcerated people and their family members. And so when people are coming home, they realize, hey, we're experiencing discrimination because of our records and that's not fair. That's not okay, right, we've already paid whatever debt we had to society and we should continue to experience this discrimination after coming home. We're almost a decade or over a decade just around there of organizing and putting pressure on our elected officials to change that we got this law and so I just really want to recognize this came because people who are impacted recognize this is unfair and it needs to also be illegal. So the Fair Chance Act was a law was passed in 2018 and it has three basic parts. And if you only remember one thing from this presentation that's what Katie and I want you to remember that there's three different parts and then that those parts are, it has a band the box part, it has a fair chance process part and it has an off limits information part. And then we're going to talk about the details of all those in the slides that come. And if you only remember their three parts and then you know you have these slides and can come back and look at the details and that'll be great. So the band the box part is about how the employer, most employers in California can't ask about criminal history before giving you a job offer. So the Fair Chance process piece is around creating a process when an employer wants to take back a job offer because of your background check or because of your record. And that process is to include two key things notice right they have to tell you that they're doing that and then they have to give you an opportunity to respond. And then the off limits information piece is that there are certain types of criminal history information that cannot be considered. So the first section band the box. And when this mostly applies is at the application stage and at the interview stage. So most employers in California are not allowed to ask you about your conviction history on a job application at an interview, or run a background before they actually offer you a job. And so all these questions that we're seeing on the screen right here have you ever been convicted of criminal fat criminal offense check the box yes or no. Have you ever been convicted of a felony have you ever been arrested. Check yes or no that box is banned. And I know you all are still seeing these on applications because we're still seeing them, but for most employers, these questions are illegal. All right, so now we're going to do a little pop quiz and there's going to be a few of these sprinkle throughout the presentation. So I'm going to ask you I'm going to read the question read the answers and then I'm going to ask you to type in the chat a BC or D what you think the right answer is. So the question is, when can a potential employer ask about a criminal record. Is it a before giving someone an application be on the application. See, during the interview, or D after offering someone a job so I'm going to count to three and then you can type in the answer 123. I've seen lots of D's. Some people may be not sure they're not answering. Okay, I'll give you guys a few more seconds, you all give you all a few more seconds, excuse me. Okay, yeah, so for those folks who answered D that was right. And so remember this is the band the box piece right it says when is the important part about the band the box, you can't do it up front you can only out do it after you decide, I want to hire you because you have all the employees. Only then can employer actually get to see what's in your record. Okay, so moving right along we're going to go to the second part of the law, which is the fair chance process. And this is probably the most complicated process, and the most complicated piece of it. And so this process was basically designed to make the employer reconsider to make the employer rethink. It's a job offer. Okay, so at this plate at this stage, we're after the job offer they said I want to hire you you're qualified. And then, and then they get to look at your background check then they get to ask you about your criminal history and, and, you know, you have to disclose that. And when they look at your criminal history the first thing that they have to do is do an individual evaluation right so you're more than your criminal record. I want to look at you as a whole package and evaluate whether your specific convictions that you have are directly related to the job duties and look at how much time has passed since the convictions right so you know if I was robbing banks, six months ago and I apply to work as a bank teller is going to be pretty tough for me to pass this individual evaluation piece of it right. But if I was robbing banks, six months ago and I applied to work as a stock person at a cashier at a grocery store I'm sorry and a stock person at a grocery store or if I applied to work as a software engineer right that bank robbery has nothing to do with what my job related duties are going to be now. So if they decide based on that individual evaluation that your convictions make them want to take back your job offer they have to go to the next step which is the initial written notification. And so that's if they decide to take back your job offer they have to tell you specifically what's the issue this conviction Stacey for to in 2016 that you have for theft is the conviction that I have an issue with they can't just say your background check came back and it's a mess. And we're not going to hire you anymore they have to say this specific conviction, and then they have to give you a copy of any background check that they used. And then this is where it's your time to change their minds. So this is they have to give you this opportunity to respond of at least five business days. And that response can look like a few things which Katie is going to go more into detail at the second part of this presentation but high level it can include evidence of background check errors and let me tell you those are very common evidence of rehabilitation, or circumstances of the crime or your life that should make them reconsider. And then after you submit that the company has to do another evaluation and decide whether or not your convictions still justify not hiring you. And if they do, then they have to give you a second final written notification telling them about telling you about their final decision and telling you about your right to file complaint with the government about their decision. So this is an example of what this initial notice can look like and this is what it should look like this is not necessarily what they will look like a lot of times client my clients just get ghosted by an employer right after they get their background check. They don't do any of the process piece. That's probably more common but when they do it and when they do it right this is what it looks like. It tells folks you have five business days. You can include evidence challenging the accuracy of criminal history showing rehabilitation or mitigating circumstances or both, and then it gives you some examples of the types of things that you can submit. And then we're moving right along to the third piece of the law which is off limits information. And so most employers can't ask for, or even if they accidentally get this information use the following types of criminal history information. Arrest that did not result in convictions except if the case is currently open. So if you were ever arrested for something and then the charges were dropped you were never convicted of that. Or if you arrested for something and you pled to something else and those other arrests, then you weren't convicted for employers can't use that the only exception is if you're currently going through the process right now. And the criminal system process and the case is currently open then employers can use that. So if you've gone through any pre trial or post trial diversion program, which oftentimes comes up with like DUIs or drug court where there's some sort of diversion set up so that you can do something and take a class or participate in some sort of rehabilitation program that will avoid a conviction. They also can't use judicially dismissed convictions which are oftentimes called expunge convictions if you've gone through some sort of clean slate or record clearing process. So that's one of the advocates of rehabilitation which is another sort of record clearing process. If you've gotten your convictions judicially sealed employers can't use that, or if you've gotten a pardon from the governor or from the president employers can't use that. Employers also can't use anything that happened in juvenile court. And then employers also can't take into account minor marijuana related convictions that are more than two years old. So we have a local law that says that employers can't take into account infractions. So anything below misdemeanor. All right, so now we have another pop quiz so get ready to type into the chat I'm going to read the question and then I'm going to count to three and then I'm going to ask you to put in your answer. So the question is, can an employer run a background check on me. What do you all think. Yes, no, maybe. One, two, three. I've seen a lot of yeses. So yeah, that's right, but it's a little bit of a trick question. Because remember that it's only after the job offer right because we ban the box. So they can't ask about it at the front end. It's only after the job offer that they can ask. Okay, one more pop quiz. Can an employer ask me about past arrest. So I'm going to count to three one, two, three. Okay, I see a private message that says yes. Someone else saying no. What do other folks think someone else saying no. Okay. Yeah, so it's no. Right. But again there's an exception, there's an exception unless the case is currently open right so again it's a little bit of a trick question. Oops. So now let me ask you. Can an employer ask you about dismissed convictions or expunge convictions as they're often called count to three. One, two, three. What do folks think. Yes, someone says no, someone says no. Okay. The answer is no. That's a really good reason right to go through a clean slate a record clearing process because employers can't ask about these. At all. Creative employers so I'm seeing from Joseph creative employers can get around these they can Google, etc. That's absolutely right. Even if they get this information though remember they can't use it. So they and now because of the fair chance process right they have to tell you I'm taking back your job offer because of this conviction right so they tell you hey Stacy I'm taking back a job offer, because I found this on Google that you were convicted of robbery in 2012. I got that expunged, then they can't use that anymore. And yes, Lauren this is in California there are also other places that have similar laws but the details are going to be a little bit different. And so this is all across California, and the law that we're talking about and there's also a specific San Francisco law that goes a little bit further but it's pretty much the same. Okay, so this is a summary of everything that we've talked about. So this is another resource for you if you're, you remember you know the band the box the fair chance process and the off limits information piece you can go back to this page, which is on our website which I'll drop in the chat in a second and look up oh here the specifics of this. With that I'll pass it on to Katie. Thank you so much. And again thank everybody for joining us this morning. We're navigating the fair chance process so we are going to take a look at like Stacy said what does it look like to navigate the fair chance process with his rehabilitation and all that kind of good old stuff. Let me see next slide. Right here. Okay. So this is the fair chance process one of the one of the most important things to do is get ready now. And when you participate in webinars like these, you know you're educating yourself so this is absolutely a critical start for getting ready now you know, and we're going to how do you continue to get ready throughout your process and navigating this we're going to take a look at personal statement with that could look like, you know what sort of letters of support we want to be submitting when we are you know responded to that notice, and what kind of criminal court documents and how they look, you know so we're going to take a look at this stuff. Let me get a copy of your records. This the criminal, some of the criminal court documents that we're talking about. You know, because, again, you got cases that's been dismissed. You have, you know, some errors on there, these are things that you know when you get a copy of your record that you want to be looking for. Let me see what does that say or people with felony convictions banned from jobs in health care with. It's not. Um, but we're going to address that we're going to address that though. And so yes, how do you get a copy of your criminal court documents so that other slide we saw that right now you can you can go on some of the DOJ websites, and you can request your own these days. It's really not all that hard if you can get your load you want to start with a local rap sheet first, and then you absolutely want to be getting your California DOJ rap sheet as well. The next most easiest way that I really just love to point out for folks is you want to ask for a copy of your background check from the employer. And this is, if I'm not mistaken, this is prior also to the California fair just like this is a part of the fair credit reporting act that they have to give you a copy of whatever information that they dig up on you. It's a little box like at the end of you know the application like right after you sign on to giving them permission to run a background check. There's also going to be another question that says you know if you would like a copy of your background check click this box is going to say if you're in the state of California blah blah blah it's going to be like some little explanations. That's the box you want to click, you're going to automatically get the same information that that specific employer had generated is part of their background check process to use to using against you or for you. Thank you. Okay, now rehabilitation so at first we talked about you know some criminal court documents and how to get access to those and what they could look like. The next piece that I believe is really critical that I think a lot of folks not a lot of folks but people are slowly starting to pay attention to is what can be submitted as evidence of rehabilitation. And I just love to let folks know because I'm formerly incarcerated I definitely have to navigate this process. We're not selling ourselves short okay, we want to be including your certificate of completion from your residential drug treatment program. Okay, that is very important up here you can see we got anger management certificate up there right here you see this community service worker, all that stuff you want to submit as evidence of rehabilitation. The community service login sheet is important because that shows consistency that showing the employer I'm going to be here every day on time, willing and ready to work. You know what I'm saying also is community service, it also shows that it's not just about me I'm willing to go above and beyond okay. So Solano Community College of course you didn't went back to school, you didn't got your GED, you got your AA degree vocation new certificate you went through the PG&E program. You went through the construction pre apprenticeship, you want to submit all that stuff as evidence of rehabilitation we're not selling ourselves short I can't express that one enough. Sorry about that. Okay, personal statement. Now, the reason why we love this template and we was definitely appreciate of getting this template from some of our other partners that we've been working with because this can be really intimidating sometimes the personal statement. A lot of times you know for folks that just got out over folks that maybe you know maybe you had that one job for a while and now you back on the market so now you got to redo this again. This is going to be a little intimidating to throw you off. And so this template really just gives you a nice outline on just a good structure on how you want to get something going for yourself. You want to discuss the what when just the basic facts, take responsibility and sure and worst, you don't want to be up in there talking about you know those 15 rub the old lady in that sounds bad you don't want to be you know I'm saying tell you officer, you want to stick to the facts what happened I was charged for burglary, and that was in 2012. And then you want to move on to taking responsibility and sure and worst what you learn some mitigating circumstances, and what the situation with the situation taught you, it taught you that you need to be out here having a job or it taught you that how your actions affect the community that kind of stuff is very important okay. You want to discuss accomplishments, social and community ties, we talked about programs completed outside. What about program that you completed inside for people that just came home. That stuff is absolutely important previous employment I think that's going to be a no brainer. And again, you completed your high school diploma you just got the construction apprenticeship program. That's our education, and then you want to close with relatable skills, and you know just restate your quality share values and relevant skills. Your commitment to your work family community, etc. personal strength for a great hard worker you're dedicated to this job, and you want to let them know you a good candidate because you know why you're a good candidate. And right here. You know just please take a look at this real quick. This is a sample letter from a real client, you know, this sample letter really just kind of shows a good way to get your stuff started. You know, it talks about what happened from when I was 18 till I turned 25. I was struggling with drugs. You know what I'm saying it goes on to say how I regret this period of my life and I take for responsibility. After my most recent conviction. You know I entered a residential residential treatment program I completed that program and been clean for five years okay he goes on to talk about getting the highest or she getting a high school diploma and now volunteering with the organization that is going down the same pathway as me. So this is a really great just quick little sample letter of how you can get a letter structure for yourself the personal statement is very important. And here is another good example. And this one is structure similarly in 2012 I was convicted for Grand Theft and was sent into three years. This is my incarceration. This is where they take responsibility. You know I realized how my actions hurt others. And I learned that I need to overcome the urge for instant gratification. This, this person goes on to talk about how they discovered learning for technology, after, you know, applying themselves to all the available classes and engineering, grateful to have seen extensive training okay work as a mechanic and there are so excited to apply for this job and this opportunity to work for this particular company. This is a great example how you want to end it by getting personal, what you've done, talking about your qualifications. Again, promoted after a hard year working you excited to work for this company that's how you want to get personal okay. And another thing that I want to point out to we, we Stacy shared the toolkit earlier while we were going through some of the other resources the toolkit is definitely hands on is interactive it's a fantastic resource that we put a lot of work and effort into and we work with some partners and we really set this up to be super duper interactive and supported for folks at various different stages of your employment journey because everybody didn't just come home you know you got folks as season you've been working for five 10 years and maybe you going for a promotion or something like that. It may be since you've been home a long time. So you don't feel like it's important to go ahead and go through a clean slate clinic because you've been home or maybe you just haven't wrote a sample letter or something like that so this stuff is in a toolkit. All this stuff is going to be in your toolkit is going to have a structure. It's going to have some filling blank stuff. So we really encourage you all to take a look at the toolkit. It has a lot of good information and it has a lot of stuff we're covering the day. So just more sample letters of what you can find in your toolkit sample letters from service providers, folks that's providing job training education and stuff we talked about volunteering. There's all sort of sample letters in the toolkit that you could take to a job training supervisor and say hey you know I'm trying to go for this job. So that sample letter to help you structure a little letter to help support me. You know you want to make it easy for the people that you're going to ask for help. Again, you've been volunteering. We have a sample letter in there that you can go to ask your volunteer coach or your volunteer person to get a letter together for you again you want to make it easy sometimes folks is busy. That's not a near scope of work. And if you've come into them with a sample letter that's showing how proactive you are and again making it easy for somebody to support you that goes a long way. This is one of my favorite parts right here. Comment violations, you know I think a lot of us. A lot of us really it's hard to read the background checks you know again you don't really know how to access it that in reading the background check can throw you for a loop it looks it got you looking bad now you're thinking about. You want to kind of stay focused on some of the common violations when you receive this background check while you're looking for a job or whatever it is going through a clean slate clinic. Asking about convictions on job applications is one of the common violations that you're going to encounter when you're navigating the process. Okay, conducting a background check before conditional offer and employment is made. You know, again, that stuff is still happening. We know we're still seeing that in the field. It is still happening. So, stating that no individuals with conviction will be hired, you know, on job announcements, it list says no felonies and stuff that stuff is illegal those are blanket bands and that's illegal, considering off limits information is like conviction that have been dismissed. That's illegal that's a common violation, the wrong process, or no process at all, you know, for taking back a job offer. And that's really common, you know, Stacy mentioned it earlier a lot of times people get ghosted you never hear from the employer again. An employer doesn't provide a copy of the background check. A lot of employers are missing that step, you know whether you check that box or not they still have the obligation to if they're going to take that job offer back to supply you with a copy of the background and then employers are failing to give folks that five business days to review and respond to the notice if you pay attention, you will get the adverse action notice and the final rejection notice within one day or two of each other. And that's illegal that's in violation of the five business days. Okay. We've talked. No, we haven't talked about some of this so documented potential violations. You know right now a lot of stuff is digital you got you know so you want to definitely be on top of this stuff ahead of time you want to make sure whatever you're applying for the job you want to take screenshots of your completed application you want to be taking screenshots of the letters or whatever that you get back from that employer. Taking a photo if you are receiving something, you know, through the mail or something like that, scanning documents to make sure that you're being able to save these documents to your own personal email, or you know, scanning it to, you know, for folks that are a tech savvy if you have external hard drives and you know how to utilize that type of stuff. We recommend documenting all communications, you know, including job offers the conditional offers documented save all this stuff the pre advanced action letters, you want to be hitting save on these emails and stuff like that. Any other communications related to your criminal record, or your final hiring decision, you also want to document like if you're receiving emails from a particular HR representative. That's another common violation we're seeing a singular HR representative who don't know the law, speaking for the company when that ain't really even the policy. We're talking about we don't hire fellas and that's not even the policy nowhere on the books, and now here you didn't lost a job, and now we out here searching and firing, and then you like well who told you that and now you got to figure out it was john, who were, you want to document those emails from those singular HR representatives because a lot of times, you know I want to get a benefit of that maybe they just don't know the law, you know, take note of communications. You know, when did they ask about your criminal record was it during an interview, did they say it in person, all that's considered before the job offer you want to make these notes again save emails and letters and take notes of phone calls dating time. What you spoke with was a john j from HR and what what kind of comments was john j making standing up for your rights. This was built into the law because like Stacy said this was this law really was almost a two decade effort of organizing at the various different levels by people with criminal records who had been through the process, and was fed up with some of these roadblocks. And so that's how some of this stuff, God built into the law, prepare, prepare, prepare. Again, getting informed like you're doing today, participating in clean slate programs getting your records draft and letters saving stuff. That's preparing yourself to stand up for your rights document and what's happening we just talked about that. So that's preparing yourself to stand up for your rights responded to the employer, knowing your rights check up for errors, and sending in your letters of support and personal statements. That's all in preparation of standing up for your rights, you know what I'm saying. And that's a component that we want you guys utilizing because you know it was a real fight to get this stuff included in there and what good is the law. Exercise it you know and that definitely leads me to this next box which is following the complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing as the DfEH or whatever the local agency is because some local cities have a little bit stronger ordinances and a designated like area to respond and handle these complaints and then you also want to turn to your community. You got right now you have three years, you know to file with the DfEH. And that's important because I know if my case when I got denied the job I got ghosted. I was in survival mode. You know I had only been home like a year or two so I didn't have the time of the luxury to be going back and forth and trying to let you know this that the other and trying to pull it. I needed a job. So I had to just roll with the punches and got back out there in the field and continue looking for a job. You know and sometimes it's heartbreaking and it does throw you for a look in the canside track you when you get denied this job and you out here in survival mode you get these bills paid. And so, you know, back in the day I would have lost that opportunity. Now you have three years so you can go ahead get you another job, collect your parents get on your feet and then come back and file that complaint against whoever that employer was. And lastly but not least I mentioned a little bit, turn to your community and for the support that you need. You know, all of a sudden, you know we got our Inland Empire Coalition on here that's our folks down south there's plenty of resources here in the Bay Area. The library has plenty of resources on there that they can share with you, really rebound. There's plenty of resources okay that you know you want to turn to your community to get the support you need to stand up for your rights. And I just dragged it a little. Okay. Now we we we built this to be interactive and we want we want folks to participate and so we have a role play here. Okay. And we would like a volunteer to, you know, like raise your little hand or unmute yourself to answer the question I'm going to go ahead and read the prompt for the role play. And again we would like someone to volunteer. I think they they have some sort of little hand raise. I think they got a hand raise option on there, or you can just unmute yourself and say hey I'd like to do it. I mean if not, I'll give a practice response. Okay, so here we go. You're at an interview for a job as a forklift operator. The interview was going great. But then the manager asks you. Is there anything going to come back on your background check that I should be concerned about. You have 2014 convictions for robbery and possession of narcotics. What came the question is what can you say in response. What can you do after the interview. Okay, I want folks pay attention to, you know there's some keywords in there. Okay. We're at the job for forklift operator, and you have convictions for robbery and possession of narcotics. This is 2021 we're going to go with this year and remember, those are 2014 convictions. Let me see. Does anybody want to volunteer to give a practice response. We're not looking for nothing perfect we just looking for courageousness. Me. Oh, I heard of me. Yeah right here. How you doing Jerry. Fine. All right. What do you think you can say a response to this. I believe I can say no. Okay, okay, okay. Answer right that's an illegal question. Yeah, because I'm understanding from what Joe just went through that. It's like nothing related to me being a forklift or a team, anything that nature and from the year. This is 2021 that was 2014. I understand. So I'm understanding things that you'll just stated that. I believe it's wherever my right to say no right. I'm not for sure. Yeah. Absolutely. It's definitely it's a brave thing to say right to be like in the middle of an interview know what anyone else take a different tact or does anyone else have other ideas of what you could say. There's the, the nice part about this is that there's no right answers by the way there are all many right answers but there's no wrong answer. Yes. And what about after the interview. We document what happened. And after the interview we want to make sure we submit and you know our evidence of rehabilitation and stuff like that. But absolutely. You know, so this definitely you, you nailed it, you know, Jerry nailed it first and foremost this is a forklift operator, my convictions for robbery and narcotics that's not a directly related conviction. And yes, that is, I think that's seven years ain't it from 2014 to 2026. Oh, it's almost a seven. So yes, that's six years ago. A lot of time has passed since then so absolutely. And absolutely so that's a brave answer and I like that answer. Let me see what we got next. Nobody else want to take a stab. That's okay. Okay. So again, here's a recap so if an employer asked about your criminal history on the application. There is no right way to answer this, you know, this is what I really like to say to people you know, be be truthful, you know, because for me, you know you don't want to lie, you know, you but you do want to know your rights, you know, for me. Again, the interview going good. It depends on the job, my qualifications, how I feel about you know this person because they are asking me a legal question this is before the offer has been made. It depends on how bad I want that job, you know, and again how you know how it's going, you know, maybe I will say you know what back in 2014, I do got this little robbery conviction but sir I'm here to tell you right now today that there's nothing to do with me supplying as this for cliff operator I've had my for cliff license for blah blah blah years no accidents. I've gave it back to my community. So it depends on the job. How bad I want that job, the vibes highs filling up in there. You know so there's no there's no right or wrong answer. It's just, you know, if I'm feeling like I'm just gonna say no, and I'm going to let you go ahead and run your background check and do what it is that you're supposed to be doing. So it's no right answer. So some more components. So read the question when you're filling out the application read the question carefully. Have you ever been convicted of a felony, or have you ever been arrested for a crime in the last seven years? You know you want to read the question real carefully that help you figure out whether you should be checking yes, or no on that box. Think about your conviction history. You know some of us can remember like I know for sure right now. I'm pushing nine years in my criminal history so I'm feeling very confident these days. I'm checking no no no no. I've been through some clean slate clinics. For me I'm checking no on everything. Absolutely. So if you think about your history, you know, now if you know you got somebody a year ago, you check yes. You know, check yes you don't want to be lying. Remember your options. Don't be afraid to you know when you in that situation you figuring out what they ask you. Remember your options. You have a process built into this. They can just deny you the job because you check yes on that application. That's old and that's not true. That's no longer true no more. And a lot of people still believe that that's not true. My gentleman who asked about the healthcare industry. I did see Stacy answered it for you. You know folks are not automatically bar from those jobs. The laws is changing right now. You know there's exempt that they're making the exemptions used to really like take a long time and that kind of was causing people a job. There's new laws to help refine and change that towards folks. If you already been in that field, you know what I'm saying you can apply for a quicker exemption to allow you to get various jobs at the healthcare industry. There's new laws going after not going after I don't want to say it like that, but there's new laws aimed at changing around licensing. So we really focused on the level of license that people can get within the healthcare facilities. I mean excuse me the healthcare field I know it's more than just facilities. So absolutely there's a lot of laws going on so you know you you you got options and don't and then legal action. We talked about filing with the defh that's built into the law. That's your right. Don't be afraid to take legal action. And again you got up to three years now okay. We went over this about if an employer acts during the interview, you know, again, depends on you know where you at your career how about you want that job the vibes and how I was going in practice practice practice. I've practiced in the mirror. You know this question, you know because you get the stuttering and talking fast and stuff like that. Practice, you know what I'm saying we got a couple of little examples down here. Like I said early yes I do got a robbery in 2014 and back in 2014 but what I can tell you is that that has nothing to do with my ability to show up to work and work hard for you at this company and blah whatever it is that you don't come up with is going to sound great I know everybody is. Yes definitely what they say right here. No you definitely don't want to be over sharing absolutely and that's why we are against. We're going to be over sharing information absolutely over sharing. Like I said earlier you get the stumbling now you talk about how you robbed old lady and knocked her over the head. That ain't even that's over that ain't you know, you know you're nervous. So absolutely we're and that's why you want to practice practice your response practice makes perfect. I just want to point out that all these different responses here are from real clients right and so they're, you know, answers that we've sort of developed in in relationship with folks. And you can see people took very different approaches right what I can tell you that there's nothing in my past that would keep me from doing this job well that's basically saying no I'm not going to answer that in a nice way right, or regardless what's in my past I know I'm not qualified for this job and can perform it with excellence. Same thing. Someone who's more direct someone need to take more of a Jerry route right I think that under California law called the Fair Chance Act you're not supposed to ask that question at the stage, which is similar right to what Janis dropped in the chat. I'm surprised you're asking questions like this in an interview is these types of questions aren't allowed until an offer is made. Yeah, and then the, the, the kind of version that Katie was talking about right where you say I do have some convictions you don't have to disclose that at this stage right the law says that's the right the law gives you you don't have to disclose that. But if you want to you still can if you want to just know like, look I just want them to know because I don't want to waste my time here. You can tell them but important not to overshare right remember that they haven't seen your background check, so they don't know what your convictions are. They might ask after you share this right I do have some convictions they might say well what are those convictions, which again would be an illegal question. But you don't have to tell them necessarily even if you are going to say I have something on my record you don't need to tell them what it is. And then I have to make all those decisions for yourself about like, you know, what, what do I want to tell them up front and what do I not you have the right to not tell them anything. But we know that you know that right might not be something that you that's going to help you get that job basically so. Absolutely. I think my favorite one though is what I can tell you right now is that there's nothing in my background that is stopping from doing this job well, I like that one that's my favorite. And so here I just wanted to briefly go over the the complaint form so this is the first step of filing a legal complaint with the agency and it looks a little complicated it's actually pretty simple and at the end of the toolkit to there's like a annotated version of this where it says it has like little bubbles on the side that tells you here's what you fill in here and here's what you fill in here. Basically just ask you for complainants information so that's you the person making the complaint and ask you whether you need an interpreter. And ask you some questions about whether you're out on bail or released on your own recognizance pending trial which is related to an exception in the law. And then about positions at certain facilities health care facility farm labor job, or a law enforcement position with the state criminal justice agency. And so those are agencies that are highly regulated. And where there's sort of, it's harder to get a job, honestly, but it doesn't mean that you're not going to be able to get a job there. And then the respondent section is just the company right who is the one who violated your rights, and then on the other side it just asked you to check a box to tell us what right was violated. And that's all you really have to do this is all there's a it's an 11 page total intake but a lot of it is optional and these are basically the parts that are required. So you have total benefits of filing with the DFH which is the again the state government agency in San Francisco we also have a local agency called the Office of Labor Standards enforcement. And you have a lot shorter to file with them but if if the employer or the job that you're applying to is in San Francisco, you can also file with them but you only have 60 days with the state agency the DFH you have three years like Katie told us. The benefits of doing that is one you're standing up for your rights right to your holding employers accountable so you know like you were held accountable for breaking the law right they should be held accountable for breaking the law to. And three you could just, it can be as simple as getting an explanation right so some of my clients who've been ghosted they're like I don't know why they did this like we were, everything was good. And they just stopped answering and so this at least forces the company to come to the table and tell you why they, they didn't you know they didn't want to give you the job anymore. More tangible benefits more and more concrete benefits is you can actually get the job. Right and that's happened to some of our clients. You can also get back pay so lost wages basically or other monetary compensation. You can also change the practice and have training at the company for all the HR folks or hiring folks who are involved in the process and who did you wrong. So that this doesn't happen to anyone else. I also wanted to share some resources so here's some record clearing resources right to go through and get your convictions expunge or to get the certificates of rehabilitation to get all that type of record clearing that moves your criminal history information from some of the employers can use into the off limits criminal history information category. So the SFPD office does this and rebound and then clear my record.org. You can also come to, we don't do record clearing stuff but we do all employment stuff. So you can come to legal aid at work and we have a workers rights clinics including right here in San Francisco where you can call and get one on one appointment with the legal counselor and get sort of tailored information and advice for your situation. So one of the resources resources at the top is the agency the California government agency that handles these responses we have Goodwill San Francisco where you can go through to for job development and help with finding a job written rebound which is another legal organization that helps with other issues related to criminal records. All of us are none is that criminal. I'm sorry is that grassroots civil rights organization that we talked about that was involved in passing this wall and is still involved in advocacy campaigns. And then we have that SFPL reentry website which is compiles a bunch of different resources that are local here and related to reentry. And then you can also always just contact me or contact Katie of our phone number, you have my phone number and email there Katie's email. And that's it. And with that we'll go ahead and go to questions. Let's see it looks like there's something in the chat now. Yes, so you can get copies of the slides those will be emailed by SFPL after the presentation. Oh thank you JP already answered just scroll down. Great thank you for sharing that Joseph, the reentry employment network. And so that's for service providers specifically. Okay. It's service providers but also there are a lot of returning community members and people advocating for these issues. Great. Okay, so now we want to open it up to questions so what questions do you all have and then while I do that I'm also going to drop a couple of health care related resources into the chat as well. Yeah. So thank you for that. And also if you all feel don't have any questions. I'll try to join. Also have an evaluation which I'm going to drop into the chat which you asked you to fill out just to let us know what you learned from the presentation what was helpful what wasn't. And if you want to receive a copy of our toolkit. You can also fill that out and just check the box that says yes and then we'll we can mail one to you. As long as you include your email address. Have a question. Okay. Yeah, go it. Me. Yes. Okay. Yeah, I've been here and discussed the things dealing with like the jobs and whatnot like, I actually got a conviction from. I got arrested in February 1796 and I got out last year February 18 2020. So some of these things that I ran across but I was kind of fortunate to get a job. But my question is dealing with like, y'all didn't discuss anything dealing with like housing like because, like a few months ago I was kind of fortunate to secure housing but I kind of ran into some of these issues but that doesn't relate to housing I was saying like some of the rights or whatnot. So that's why I was kind of like turning in for but this is going to be helpful moving forward though. Thank you. And, and you know what, unfortunately, we didn't because this is specifically focused on employment and housing is definitely a problem. There is some local banner box housing ordinances. I was a part of getting one pass here in Oakland, Berkeley and every bill those are local banner box ordinances, and there was some effort in 20, not 20 2019 to take this as a statewide banner box housing bill. Unfortunately, that piece of legislation was definitely not even close to what the state law is and so we had to come out in opposition to that and so that was in 2019. And so, you know, we are definitely waiting and looking for the next opportunity to take this to a statewide level this year. It's pretty it's hard right now at this to run bills. That's not really COVID-19 related and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, yes, we hear you. Housing is a problem. And so I think if you're interested in that so there's no like analog to the California for a chance act and employment for housing right now all across California. And so that's something that folks right now are trying to work on getting past right. And so I really recommend that you reach out to Katie, or to all of us are none if you're interested in getting involved in those advocacy efforts. Here in San Francisco, we do have a local law that relates to fair chance housing, but it's pretty limited it only applies to affordable housing providers, not private housing so if you're renting from some, you know from a landlord, who is gets affordable housing is an affordable housing provider then their restrictions on what they can do. But for the most part right employers can do whatever they are sorry landlords can do whatever they want right now. And so that that's why we're trying to create some rights right and change change the laws there unless you're working with an affordable housing provider. And for that to you can reach out to the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, which I will drop in the chat. Yes. So what Stacy said San Francisco's yes it's just a little limited and even with some of those afford and houseable folks mercy and all those folks, you do still see the question and it can be a little daunting. But, you know, they're also governed by, you know, like federal law and stuff to that they do have to engage in certain processes and things like that. But yes, housing is a problem for formerly incarcerated people and walk home. Yeah, that's right so that's a good point Laura and some of the prompts that we mentioned for convictions and interviews and stuff. You can think to use for housing they're not perfect but they could help right yeah so the only difference right is that employer or landlords they keep saying employees because that's what I work with. Landlords can't can ask those questions up front right and can ask those questions on the applications, but you can still try right you can still try and say like, there's nothing in my in my record right that would make me a bad tenant like I've had a great record of tenancy. You know here's my last landlord or you know you can try to come up with something to sort of shift them away from focusing on your conviction history and instead back to how you're going to be a good tenant. I've been a little while now right like Jerry sounds like you, you found work and you've been working for a while and so like look I have been employed for a while I've had a steady job study income I'm going to pay round time. Yes, absolutely and I would even also be including, you know, I mean it depends on, again the house and how bad you want it you know I'm saying if you scared of those questions, you want to you can include some evidence of rehabilitation. You know, you can include whatever it is that you think is going to help you. You know, like I said for me I'm you know ain't no selling the short I'm going to try whatever, just like you pulling out all the tricks out the bag to stop me. I'm pulling out all the tricks out the bag to help me. That's that's you know that's how I try to encourage people. And yes, like Stacy said to, there's a lot of opportunities to get involved in advocacy. I've been involved now for, you know, going on three, three years now. I've been following all of us or none though, since I came since before I was even locked up and, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of changes being made you know if you don't know, you don't know and you will think that there's nothing being done behind the scenes and there's a lot of folks out here fighting to try to change. I will not a lot because really it is a small group of us, but we can use more folks, you know that's ready to get out here and share a story and and advocate and learn some different things is all kind of avenues and programs to teach you this stuff and get you involved. Absolutely. And that's for everybody on here you know, resource sharing is important. And I dropped the toolkit. Again, in the chat and that has a ton of resources that you know we only touch scratch the surface that has FAQs like the one about you know what do you do if this question gets asked it has those sample letters that a sample personal statement letters that is information on how to get your record. Yeah, I'm seeing a question. Can you speak more to expungement what are persons rights and obligations and responding to potential employers oral or written questions about past criminal history. And so within expungement right and if you get your records expunge, then the employers aren't allowed to ask for or use that information that specific conviction that you got expunged or dismissed. Which is another way of saying expunge and in making a decision about your record. And so when when you get something a conviction dismissed is the legal term that's actually like in the in the law, you technically don't have that conviction anymore basically is the implication of it. And so, and that's, and that's why you know the legislature through advocacy from the cursor folks decided well then at that point the employer shouldn't be able to use that information right to make a decision about whether or not to hire you, whether or not to not revoke your job offer. And so that's why I can be really beneficial to go through the clean slate program. And sometimes they'll still come up on background checks right with Katie talked about how there's often errors on background checks or sometimes they'll come up. And it doesn't say it's expunged or dismissed, or it just comes up and it doesn't say anything about it. So that's why it's important to get your record because then you're able to show hey this is this has been dismissed. Here's my record here's my documents I got from my SFPD defender who helped me do that. And then the employer can no longer use it so even if they accidentally get it. And then I see a question but do you answer yes, have have you been convicted even though expunged. That's a great question. So read the question carefully depends on how the question is phrased right right that if it says have you ever been convicted. Then you should probably if you want to answer truthfully you should probably answer yes, or not answer at all right or I've had clients remember one of the things that Katie told you about is that remember to know that you have options you don't have to answer at all. First of all you can just skip the question. Although sometimes if you're applying online you're not able to skip right. If you're applying on paper, you can skip the question you can answer yes but expunged or dismissed right you can write it in even if there's only a checkbox you can say yes, but can conviction dismissed. Right, or you can just not answer as a lawyer we had to tell you to answer truthfully. If the question is phrased differently it says do you have any convictions for felonies. You don't currently have any convictions right and so then to that answer to that question you could truthfully answer no right or again you could skip it. And yes expunged sorry dismissed is what the legal the actual legal term expunged is nowhere in our laws, but that's what most folks refer to it as, which is why I keep saying both, those are the same thing. Yeah, and then again reading the question carefully you know, have you ever been convicted in the last seven years. You know what I'm saying so you want to be reading a question carefully. Absolutely and getting stuff cleared up and getting things cleared up and going through these expungement processes that does some time change the way you answer the question. You know, let's say if I was convicted of something within the last seven years but I got that stuff dismissed. I'm checking out. You know, and we're gonna figure out you know, it's a lot of gray area to a people complain about that too you know it's it's all about how who is interpreting what you know so. Again, reading that question and knowing your background and going through the expungement processes and things like that I miss a lot of laws changing now stuff. You're eligible to get stuff dismissed earlier and stuff now depending on circumstances. What's the new law, if you participated in the firefighting program, you can apply to get your stuff, it's fun stuff now you don't got to wait till you all know permission all that stuff. It's a lot of laws changing right now. Tapping into communities and getting involved with some of these different groups will help you like, you know, learn some of the different nuances of these different laws, I want to just be confident to say the majority of people on here have heard of the automatic expungement that passed I believe that was last year now, AB 1076. So, you know, learning the nuances in these laws and what can be automatically expunged and when and things like that and what you qualify for specifically, you know, it's a lot of laws changing for the good. We're just not hearing about it on the news, because all they want to talk about the IDD fraud. Yeah, there's a lot of laws and positive stuff changing. That's really aimed at helping folks get jobs and the same thing to housing know the law ain't no ban the box of housing, but the same thing goes if I didn't be in through these expungement clinics, and you ask and have I've been convicted of a felony in the last five years, I'm putting up, because I know I've been home about nine. I'm putting up, you know, so it's all kind of benefits and stuff changing for the positive file here. I know we pass 11, I got to get ready for my little another meeting 1130. Yeah, so feel free to drop my email and the chat. And presentation to thank you all for joining us and feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or if any of this, you know, if you face anything like this, and you want some help. Yes, it was AB 1076. All right, thank you so much. Stacy and Katie that was great presentation and will be sending all the participants the recording as well as the introductory slides with some library resources for your job search. So thanks again for all of you for attending and we'll see you at the next program. Bye bye. We'll see you later.