Belden Makes Big Showing at US Chamber Foundation Conference and Awards

This year’s conference theme was “Better Together” and focused on the benefits of businesses, nonprofits and government coming together to drive meaningful progress in the community. To exemplify this, Belden Chairman, President and CEO John Stroup delivered one of the keynote presentations titled, “Leaning into the Addiction Crisis,” where he highlighted the creation and progress of Belden’s Pathways to Employment program

Pathways to Employment is a pilot program that offers a personalized drug rehabilitation program to potential employees at our Richmond, Indiana manufacturing facility who have failed a drug screen. Those who successfully complete treatment and maintain lives free of substance abuse are offered a job at Belden.

“It has been inspiring to watch the Belden team and our community partners establish Pathways,” said John. “Together we were creating something new, keeping an open mind as we went through some trial and error and continually seeking ways to solve problems and improve the program for the benefit of the participants. We didn’t know what we didn’t know –which required the team to constantly adapt their thinking and refine the program based on what they learned.”

Belden was named a finalist for the Citizens Awards, Best Community Improvement Category alongside Dr. Pepper/Keurig and General Mills. We congratulate General Mills, who was announced as the winner at the Citizens Gala for their surplus food waste reduction program.

While Belden was not selected as the winner, Belden’s leadership, Pathways core team, a Pathways participant, community partners and other supporters of the program celebrated the early successes of the program at the Awards Gala.

The next day was back to work, as the Pathways team and advisors pressed on with plans to expand the program and build a blueprint to help other companies and communities facing the same challenges to implement a similar program.