Toffi helps formerly incarcerated job seekers find their place in the workforce
Milwaukee-based talent recruitment company Toffi specializes in fortifying the pipeline between formerly incarcerated individuals and veterans, and local companies in industries like manufacturing, retail, hospitality and landscaping. The company, formerly known as The Way Out, mainly serves job candidates and companies in Milwaukee County, with some reach into Waukesha and Sheboygan counties. Toffi is led by Eli Rivera, a formerly incarcerated individual and co-founder and head of community and operations, and Jen Cantwell, chief executive officer. BizTimes reporter Sonia Spitz recently spoke with Rivera and Cantwell about how Toffi came to be and the ways in which the company is striving to end recidivism and fill positions in the workforce.
BizTimes: What is Toffi?
Rivera: “(Ruben Gaona, executive director of Toffi’s nonprofit arm My Way Out, and I) founded The Way Out in 2020 after we met at an anti-recidivism panel discussion. The intention grew from the idea of this employment platform for justice-impacted folks. Because of COVID-19, it really started to morph into the re-entry and supportive service side of things, which is where My Way Out was born. The lane that Ruben took with his skill in the re-entry space, and mine, which was more on the employer side of things, lined up with keeping The Way Out on its trajectory and making Toffi what it is now.”
How did The Way Out transition into Toffi?
Cantwell: “I joined earlier this year and we realized we needed a different kind of branding to help distinguish us from the nonprofit (My Way Out). We found in our work that resilience is key. Almost 90% of the folks that we’ve placed in these really high-turnover industries are still in the jobs we paired them with a year later. So, we thought about Toffi as a name for the company and how it worked with our tagline, ‘Talent that Sticks.’”
Who do you serve?
Cantwell: “We work with both populations, formerly incarcerated individuals and veterans. The largest population we work with are the formerly incarcerated. We help connect employers and staffing agencies that are experiencing pain from both labor shortages and high turnover to these populations in order to fill their open roles. Not only are we working with the employers, but we’re working with a network of service providers that we connect to the justice impacted and formerly incarcerated individuals. They offer wraparound services, so that can be anything from helping them find housing and clothing, helping them with their resume, and helping them get their social security numbers or driver’s licenses – all of these things that a lot of us who have never had that experience just take for granted.”
What advice do you give to a company when they’re looking to hire formerly incarcerated people or veterans?
Cantwell: “They need to partner with a firm that has a deep understanding of what makes a candidate successful and how to vet not only for skill set but also attitude and aptitude. In some cases, it may have been a while since someone has worked; but in other cases, there are work release programs, or someone’s been working throughout their incarceration or prior to their release. From the time that the candidates are out of incarceration and looking for a job or re-entering the free world within their job, it’s really important for us and our partners to better understand what that journey is like.”
How do you pair a candidate with a job?
Cantwell: “We certainly consider if they’ve had experience prior to incarceration or during incarceration, and they may already have an idea of what they’re looking for. One thing we always advise is that they keep an open mind to various employment opportunities that align with their skill set and their aptitude. It’s a multifaceted journey, and we don’t want them to pigeonhole themselves.”
Rivera: “I think our greatest value is having that balance between Jen’s business acumen and my lived experience, and certainly Ruben’s lived experience as well. Sometimes what happens when you’re sitting in a cell waiting to come out, and you’ve got this perfect journey mapped in your mind, is you get hit with reality in the real world. That’s where that support and understanding comes in. There are all of these potential roads you can take, so let’s figure out which you’re most equipped for today, in this moment, and start there.”
Where does your revenue come from?
Cantwell: “The employers mainly, but we also partner with staffing agencies. We believe, given our understanding of the population and the length of time and lived experience that we have, that it can benefit staffing agencies to help them build a pipeline of workers. We were also helped by venture capital startup funders Gateway Capital and Google Latino Founders Fund.”
What kind of culture do you see your candidates looking for?
Cantwell: “We’re fortunate that I think every employer we’ve talked to or that we’ve piloted treats their employees well, and that goes beyond just paying above average rates. Many offer solid benefits, invest in training and understand that resilience and low turnover equals meaningful impact to their company’s bottom line.”
Rivera: “Folks like myself – or anybody else who’s come out of incarceration and are looking for that second chance – really just want to have a fair shake and be seen for the value they can bring to the organization. They want to be a contributor, not a burden, and to be somebody that is listened to and respected.”
What should people know about Toffi and its candidates?
Cantwell: “Today’s climate is really challenging, and we’re seeing many workforces across the country shrink. There are big gaps in the labor force, particularly in blue-collar jobs, and the question is, who’s going to replace them? In the state of Wisconsin, there are over 9,000 individuals re-entering from incarceration every year, and over 2,500 of them are re-entering Milwaukee County. So, I’d say having an open mind and considering formerly incarcerated individuals as well as veterans is, at the end of the day, a good business practice and can lead to high retention.”
Rivera: “We don’t want to be judged solely by the worst choice we made. We’re all human. We all make mistakes. We just happen to have had to pay our obligation for these choices that we made. That doesn’t make us any better or any worse than anybody else, it’s just a life experience that follows us for the rest of our lives.”
