NRWC Conference: Connecting leaders across the reentry workforce field to advance opportunity for justice-impacted job seekers.
The NRWC Annual Conference is a space where the reentry workforce field comes together to connect across roles and regions, collaborate to achieve shared goals, and elevate practice to meet the demands of a changing labor market.
The 2026 theme – The Future of Work & the Justice-Impacted Job Seeker, reflects a pivotal moment for the reentry workforce field. Rapid shifts in technology, employer expectations, and economic conditions are reshaping how work is done and how workers are valued. For justice-impacted job seekers, these changes bring both heightened challenges and new opportunities.
This year’s conference is designed to help the field move from anxiety about the future of work to informed, proactive adaptation, ensuring justice-impacted job seekers are not left behind as the labor market evolves.
Through dynamic learning sessions, honest dialogue, and meaningful connection, participants will explore how preparing job seekers, opportunity industries, and the systems that shape progress are redefining workforce development and what reentry workforce leaders can do now to respond with clarity and confidence.
Whether you are a practitioner, employer, educator, policymaker, funder, or other system leader, you will leave with:
- Stronger connections across the reentry workforce ecosystem;
- Practical strategies grounded in real-world practice;
- Deeper insight into system-level changes and how to navigate them to access resources and opportunity; and
- Renewed perspective on how to adapt, innovate, and lead in the future of work.
Together, we will turn ideas into action, work across systems, and strengthen the reentry workforce field so justice-impacted job seekers can thrive in the future of work.
Good to know
Highlights
- 9 hours
- In person
Location
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel
500 Canal Street
New Orleans, LA 70130
How do you want to get there?
Agenda
Preliminary Agenda
NRWC’s Annual Conference program includes both plenary and breakout sessions, with breakout sessions organized along tracks of inquiry that align with the interest of needs of the workforce reentry field as a whole, allowing attendees to intentionally select the content that is most relevant to the work they do. View here https://thenrwc.org/conference/