Scott Budnick, founder of One Community and the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, is a veteran film producer (The Hangover films, War Dogs) and criminal justice reform activist. He spoke with us about the effect exposing people to former prisoners who have paid their debt to society can have in opening up doors for professional opportunities at the Milken Global Conference 2019.

It’s something Scott knows from experience. After being invited to Sylmar Juvenile Hall to teach a class, he met someone who changed his life. He subsequently quit the film industry and started the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), where for the next five years he lobbied lawmakers for legislation that would help the incarcerated and support them with jobs and opportunity when they got out.

He later realized that his talents and passion could be put to better use for his cause, so he returned to Hollywood and raised $50 million to establish One Community, a film, TV, and new media company that focuses on creating content that effects positive social change.

In this clip below, Scott tells us about a kid he hired as a prop intern on The Hangover who was formerly incarcerated. He worked so hard every day that the prop master brought him onto his team, he joined the union, worked on Iron Man, and now makes $200,000 a year.

Watch more of what Scott had to say here.

WorkingNation was on the ground at Milken Global Conference 2019 where some of the most powerful people in business, government, healthcare, and entertainment have gathered to discuss and debate how the world is being disrupted by economic and social change and what to do about it. The goal of the talk at the conference is how to drive shared prosperity.

While there, we documented all things future of work on Twitter at #WorkingNationOverheard and in interviews at our pop-up studio (watch our playlist below).

Read our article on the event here.