Workforce Developments

TANF Emergency Fund provides subsidized employment opportunities

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) stimulus package included $5 billion to establish a new Emergency Fund for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. TANF is what's commonly referred to as traditional "welfare," and it's the program that replaced AFDC.

The Emergency Fund is intended to help TANF programs serve more families seeking employment opportunities and other forms of assistance during the economic downturn. These funds will allow programs to subsidize jobs, paying up to 100% of the wages for local employers who hire on clients.   

Because of timing and unanswered funding questions, the program was slow to roll out. Here in California, San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties led the way with early implementation. According to the SF Chronicle, San Francisco's Jobs Now program has used the TANF Emergency Fund to place just over 1,500 workers in subsidized employment and seeks to place at least 2,100 total.  It has about 3,000 people on a waiting list and 400 to 500 jobs waiting to get filled, according to Trent Rhorer, executive director of San Francisco's Human Services Agency.

General requirements include being enrolled in or eligible for the CalWORKs program or having a household income over the previous 30 days that was 200 percent below the federal poverty limit. There must be a child in the family under the age of 18, and participants must have the right to work in the US. There is no limit to the wages that someone can earn. Currently, the program is set to expire Sept 30, 2010 but many hope the program will be extended for an additional year as unemployment is projected to remain high.

TANF programs are hoping that the subsidized work experience will lead to unsubsidized employment down the road. At the very least, this program would allow low income families to earn a living and to gain valuable work experience.

For ex-offenders who are part of a CalWORKs family, this is an exciting opportunity to get back to the world of work. 

Contact your local social service agency to find out how TANF Emergency Funds are being administered in your county.

Racy Ming is manager of the Marin Employment Connection, the one-stop in Marin County, CA. She is also chair of the board for the California Re-Entry Program at San Quentin.

I hear workforce development on the radio

Last Thursday on the national radio show Marketplace I heard a great story about a workforce development program in Minnesota called Twin Cities RISE! (also on Facebook).

They told the story of two men with criminal records struggling to work their way out of poverty. One relapses back into the behavior that got him into trouble, while the other is on his way to success.

TWR! is a classic workforce development program that teaches soft skills and connects clients to supported employment opportunities. It also has a prisoner re-entry program. But the radio story never uses that kind of jargon. In fact, it never uses the phrase "workforce development" at all. 

Instead, the story is framed as being about an anti-poverty program.

Remember when that was what workforce development was all about? It still is, of course, but we've been trained to not talk about what we do in those terms.

If you're thinking hey, my program is just as good as TWR! and deserves just as much coverage, a little disclaimer at the end of the piece told another important piece of the story. Steven Rothschild, the chair and founder of TWR!, is also on the board of Marketplace's parent company, American Public Media.

Still, this story raised a few questions worth thinking about:

• Is this some kind of signal that Americans are ready to hear about anti-poverty programs again?
• Would talking about our programs in terms of bringing people out of poverty help get us more media coverage and/or public interest?

Listen to the podcast of Climbing out of a life of poverty here

Marketplace_cast1_20100120_64

or read it on Marketplace. 

Photo source: Marketplace

National Reentry Resource Center: new online resource

As part of the Second Chance Act funding awards that were made in September 2009, the US Department of Justice awarded $2.2 million toward the establishment of a National Reentry Resource Center. 

Launched in October 2009, the National Reentry Resource Center is administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance at the Department of Justice, and provides education, training, and technical assistance to states, tribes, territories, local governments, service providers, non-profit organizations, and corrections institutions working on prisoner reentry.  The mission is to "to advance the reentry field through knowledge transfer and dissemination and to promote evidence-based best practices."

The NRRC is a project of the Council of State Governments Justice Center with project partners the Urban Institute, Association of State Correctional Administrators, and the American Probation and Parole Association. Support is also provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, The Public Welfare Foundation and the Open Society Institute.

The website is organized around Popular Topics such as Employment, as well as target audiences of States/Locals, Community and Faith-Based Organizations, and People Returning Home, with each page providing key resources, as well as program s that are examples of best practices.  While this website looks like it still has room to grow, it promises to be a useful resource for those working in reentry.  I suggest you take a look! 

Racy Ming is manager of the Marin Employment Connection, the one-stop in Marin County, CA. She is also chair of the board for the California Re-Entry Program at San Quentin.

Requesting reader input on a new reentry website

The Marin Employment Connection, the one stop in Marin County, CA, is planning to add to its new website a page that specifically targets ex-offenders. 

We will include information about our Road to Work resource fairs that we do in collaboration with our Probation Department and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, through our Reentry Taskforce.  We will be able to publicize upcoming events and share the directory of resource providers online.  

What other information or resources should we include?  Have you found any websites to be particularly helpful to ex-offenders in their job search?  If so, please let me know about them!  

Racy Ming is manager of the Marin Employment Connection, the one-stop in Marin County, CA. She is also chair of the board for the California Re-Entry Program at San Quentin. 

The Road to Work

The Marin County Reentry Taskforce hosted its second Road to Work resource fair for ex-offenders on September 15, 2009. This time around, we targeted a smaller audience than the first event in January.  Fifty+ probationers and parolees attended, along with 17 service providers. 

Based on the feedback we received on the evaluation forms from the last event, we arranged for a couple of employers speak, as well as an inspirational "success story." With fewer speakers, and a smaller audience, the attendees asked many more questions than at the Road to Work in January.

The employers spoke about how job seekers should present themselves during interviews, and emphasized the need for them to be honest on their job applications. They also talked about the qualities that they look for in their employees.

We provided refreshments and raffle prizes for the attendees as well. For every service provider that they spoke with, their name was written on an index card which was used for the raffle drawing. This was to encourage them to speak with as many service providers as possible. Participating agencies donated gift cards to Starbucks, Subway, Goodwill, Image for Success, and others. We drew names throughout the morning, as an incentive for people to stick around and not leave at the first possible opportunity.

We'll hear in coming weeks whether or not the attendees follow through on the contacts that they made with the service providers.  Overall, we feel like this event was a success.

Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative

I was reading an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle by author Roger Rapoport when I came across this startling sentence: "Michigan prisons are closing and officers are being laid off because the corrections system appears to be working."

The piece was about California's on-going problems with prison overcrowding. I was intrigued by the cited statistic that since 2006, only 11.4% of Michigan parolees have returned to prison, and that "even in hard times, many well-mentored Michigan parolees are finding and keeping jobs."

Looking further, I found that the Michigan Prisoner ReEntry Initiative is a collaborative that includes  the spectrum of necessary partners, including the Department of Corrections, Department of Labor and Economic Growth, Department of Community Health, Department of Human Services, Department of Education, Public Policy Associates, and the Michigan Council on Crime and Delinquency. 

The initiative website outlines the three-phase, decision point model that they developed to work with offenders during custody, release, and community supervision, which includes highly specific re-entry plans developed six months prior to release that address housing, employment, addiction and mental illness. The website also includes resources for the justice community, policymakers, and researchers (including quarterly status reports on the initiative). Community resources include workforce development services, with the stated goal that every returning prisoner will have access to stable employment or services designed to help secure stable employment (i.e., transitional employment, job seeking assistance).

WOW.  Policy makers, if you aren't familiar with what is happening in Michigan, I think it is worth taking a look.

Federal judge orders California to release 43,000 inmates

The L.A. Times reported today that a panel of federal judges ruled California must reduce its prison population by more than 40,000 over the next two years to meet constitutional standards. Read the full ruling.

The ruling does not come as a great surprise - a judge seized oversight of the prison healthcare system in 2006 and appointed a receiver to fix a system so malfunctioning that an average of one inmate dies every week from treatable or avoidable illnesses.

The ruling comes at a time of severe budget crisis in California, where the governor had originally recommended early release of 38,000 prisoners to address budget shortfalls.  Although the most recent signed budget did not include prisoner release, legislators will still have to work out a $1.2 billion cut to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

Officials propose giving home detention to nonviolent offenders with less than a year on their sentences, or those who are elderly or infirm. But this point from the L.A. Times article may get at the most important point: "The opinion accuses the state of fostering 'criminogenic' conditions that lead prisoners and parolees to commit more crimes, feeding a cycle of recidivism."

California has one of the highest recidivism rates in the country - somewhere around 70% of parolees return to prison within a couple of years of release. But this important point still does not appear to have been adequately addressed. How are we going to connect all of these people to meaningful employment so that the majority of them don't immediately return to prison? 

In the current economic recession, are workforce professionals prepared to assist an influx of the formerly incarcerated? Will employers hire them? Will Twitter career coaches be able to help them out?

Without additional resources to help ex-offenders with employment, drug treatment, and other supports necessary to succeed on the outside, it looks like this will only be a temporary fix. Former prisoners will return, and the budget and overcrowding problems will only continue.

Photo: Eric Risberg/Associated Press

Great reentry resources

Emory University's Office of University-Community Partnerships works to integrate research and teaching in a way to benefit the greater Atlanta community.  They recently released a report, "Prisoner Reentry in Atlanta: Understanding the Challenges of Transition from Prison to Community."  Both the full report and a press release are available.

The very comprehensive report analyzes data showing where people go in metro-Atlanta when they get out of prison, what support services are available (including job training, mental health and substance abuse counseling), and the availability of affordable housing and jobs.

This study is part of the Urban Institute's national Reentry Mapping Network, which covers a dozen metropolitan areas around the country.

The study found that the formerly incarcerated face many challenges in finding employment. In addition to low levels of education and work experience, and the reluctance of employers to hire someone who has served time in prison, they also lacked the personal networks to help them identify and secure jobs. Those findings echo the experiences of government and community-based reentry service providers. 

Housing, however, was identified as the most immediate and pressing need for those who have been released.

These reports are great resources that all communities need, but most reentry programs don't have the resources to undertake on their own - check them out!

Racy Ming is manager of the Marin Employment Connection, the one-stop in Marin County, CA. She is also chair of the board for the California Re-Entry Program at San Quentin.

Ex-offenders help build the green economy

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is pouring lots of money into "greening" the US economy, including $500 million which will be available as competitive grants through the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration.  This large scale investment should lead to new jobs in weatherization, energy efficiency, alternative energy, and other industries. 

How will workforce development professionals help to link ex-offenders to these green-collar jobs?  There are a few interesting programs already doing this work.  Previously I blogged about the RichmondBUILD program, a pre-apprenticeship construction skills and solar installation training program. RichmondBUILD started as a violence reduction strategy, and has a 90% placement rate.  According to Sal Vaca, the Director of the Richmond (CA) Workforce Investment Board, 35-40% of their participants are ex-offenders. 

Someone recently sent me an interesting article about a New Jersey Tree Foundation program which employs ex-offenders in planting trees.  And the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, CA has a Green Collars Job Campaign which is working to ensure that the new green economy helps to lift people out of poverty. 

Readers, what other programs are linking ex-offenders to the green economy? We'd like to highlight them here on Workforce Developments.

Ban the box!

Whether or not the formerly incarcerated can find legitimate employment is a key factor in their ability to stay out of prison and care for themselves and their families.  Obviously, a criminal history makes it much harder for them to find jobs. 

In fact, that is the most common question that we get at our San Quentin workshops:

How can I find a job with a record? 

Over the last several years, a number of municipalities across the United States have adopted hiring policies for public jobs which eliminate the criminal history question from the application. 

These "ban the box" policies are intended to allow qualified individuals with criminal histories to have a fighting chance in the application process.  According to this great summary from the Second Chance Campaign of New Jersey, comprehensive city hiring policies include:

• the use of background check only for certain jobs when it is necessary based on objective critieria
• background checks later in the hiring process
• an opportunity to correct criminal history information and submit evidence of rehabilitation
• mitigating factors to be considered when evaluating applicants with criminal histories

Cities that have passed these policies include Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and probably most recently, New Haven, CT.  Here is a matrix from the Safer Foundation of the hiring standards for the municipalities with a ban the box policy.  

Obviously, employers have legitimate concerns regarding liability and the trustworthiness of who they hire.  No one is suggesting that a bank hire a former bank robber, or that sex offenders be allowed to work with children.  But if we as a society are serious about giving people a second chance, we need to examine policies which may be punishing qualified applicants unfairly long after their time has been served.

Grants for re-entry programs: Second Chance Act demonstration project solicitation

The Bureau of Justice Assistance of the Department of Justice has released a solicitation for the Second Chance Act Prisoner Reentry Initiative. Eligible applicants are state or local government agencies or federally recognized Indian tribes. The FAQ document provides a nice summary. A few highlights:

• Awards are up to $750,000 for 12 months
• The grant can make up no more than 50% of the overall budget.  25% of the overall budget can be in-kind contributions; the other 25% must be a hard cash match of non-federal dollars (state general fund or foundation money)
• Awarded projects should provide the full range of services, including educational, literacy, vocational, and job placement services; substance abuse treatment; programs that encourage healthy families; mentoring; validated assessment tools; and victim-appropriate services

Applications are due by 8:00 pm, April 20, 2009 via the very difficult-to-use Grants.gov website, which requires pre-registration several weeks in advance.  So get started as soon as possible! The Reentry Policy Council has released a toolkit to assist applicants, which includes a checklist that will help applicants complete their proposals, and a resource guide of useful publications.

Good luck everyone!

Image: Urban Institute

Can you help a reader? Ex-offenders need to practice electronic job applications

Reader Christina recently posted this comment looking for resources to help her nonprofit program serving ex-offenders:

I currently work for a non-profit agency which provides job readiness training to individuals with criminal records. As part of our programming, we are looking to secure a stand alone Kiosk in which clients can practice completing electronic applications (that is not web-based for security purposes). We would also like this device to be able to print out so the Staff person can review the application and provide feedback.

Is anyone aware of something like this that may exist? The issues I keep running into to is 1. no one is willing to sell me a single Kiosk, 2. everything is run off the internet in some fashion, or 3. we would have to create the software.

This Kiosk would exist in our computer lab which currently runs on a server. Ideally, we would like this to also be on the server so the Administrator (Staff person) could access.

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.

Do you know of any resources to help Christina and other programs like hers? Add your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

State of economy makes it even harder for ex-offenders to find jobs

The economic slowdown and the high numbers of unemployed make it even harder for those with limited experience or barriers to employment to find work. This is particularly true for the formerly incarcerated.

A recent article in the Long Beach Press-Telegram followed the story of a woman paroled after serving time for her nonviolent drug conviction, who is finding it difficult to find work and pay her bills. The article quotes her as saying, "In many ways, it's harder than being incarcerated."

At the same time, the state of the economy is impacting programs that provide services to ex-offenders. NPR recently did a report on juvenile justice programs suffering from budget cuts.  Funding for counseling and group homes have been cut in several states across the South, and instead young offenders are being sent to prison.  And according to another NPR broadcast that is part of a News and Notes series on crime, there is a direct link between desperate economic times and increased crime rates, particularly property crimes.  

Times are hard all around right now so why should anyone care about ex-offenders?  I keep coming back to the numbers.  In California, it costs over $43,000 a year to house one state prisoner, and we have over 170,000 locked up and over 120,000 on parole. 

Given the budget crisis, the lost human capital, the lost tax revenue and the other costs of crime, how can we afford NOT to do something about the situation?

Workforce community and probation department join forces (part 2)

Last week I wrote a post about the Road to Work resource fair for people on probation in Marin County.  This was a Probation-Employment Taskforce collaboration between the Marin Employment Connection (One-Stop and partners) and the County Probation Department. Last week's post was a description about the event; part 2 is a discussion of the outcomes and lessons learned.

It is early yet to know the impact of our efforts, and reports from participating agencies have been mixed, but promising. 

 

Among the more promising outcomes:

- Community Action Marin, a non-profit assisting low-income individuals toward self sufficiency, reported about 33% of contacts made at the Road to Work followed through so far for services.

- Marin City Community Development Corporation reported receiving follow up inquiries about their training programs from people living all over Marin.

- Tamalpais Adult Education reported having several people sign up for GED preparation courses.

Quite a few organizations had people sign up but not follow through, including the Marin Employment Connection which set up special orientation sessions only to have no one come. And a number of agencies did not have a way to track whether or not people found them through the Road to Work event.

The Probation-Employment Taskforce plans to repeat this event 2-3 times a year.  While we will adjust the content and timing of our event, here are some elements that I think were key to our being able to accomplish what we have thus far:

- Willing partners.  This event was enthusiastically supported by a broad base of partners who contributed staff time to planning as well as the funds for coffee at the event, canvas bags, raffle prizes, and a shuttle to bring people in from the bus stop. 

- A committee of like-minded citizens.  In addition to organizational support, this event would not have been possible without a core group of committed volunteers who made it happen.  I give big ups to Marin County's Probation Department.  The half a dozen or so probation officers who are a part of the Taskforce are genuinely concerned about improving outcomes for their clients and are willing to go the extra mile toward that end.  Our workforce partners on the Taskforce are also equally committed. 

- Leadership.  As I think about how this can be replicated in other communities, it seems that a necessary component is having someone willing to lead the charge.  So many people have said, "I have thought for the longest time that this is something we should be doing in Marin!"  Someone has to be willing to take on approaching the various partners and calling people together.

At the debriefing meeting, a state parole officer who has been conducting PACT (Parole and Community Team) meetings in neighboring counties for over ten years gave his input that it is almost impossible to track the outcomes from these types of events, but it is nonetheless important to offer this service since you never know who will be positively influenced by it.  I would like to hear back from readers:

- Have you found a good way to track outcomes from these types of events?

- What else do you think is needed to be able to have this type of collaboration in your community?

(Click here to read part 1)

Workforce community and probation department join forces (part 1)

In Marin County, CA, our One-Stop Career Center (Marin Employment Connection) joined forces with the County Probation Department to form the Probation-Employment Taskforce.  In the interest of full disclosure, I chair the Taskforce. 

This group of like-minded citizens share a common goal - to reduce recidivism in our community by better connecting people on probation to the workforce community.  The Taskforce, comprised of probation officers and representatives from social services and workforce development organizations, decided to put on a resource fair entitled "The Road to Work."  The first event occurred January 13th, 2009.

People on probation were required to attend by their probation officers (POs) and in some cases as part of their sentencing.  Of the 150+ people who received letters telling them to attend, 89 came to the Road to Work.  Twenty different organizations sent staff to be available to speak with the attendees.

The program included a keynote speaker, short talks by three people who have turned their lives around and are now successfully employed, as well as short introductions of each of the agencies present.     

After that, the attendees were given time to visit with individual tables and find out about services that might be of interest to them.  The plan was for every person to to leave with a next step.  To make the event more positive, individuals also contributed funds which allowed us to have a raffle of prizes and gift cards.  Take a look at the program and a list of participating agencies for more information. 

Attendees were asked to complete evaluation forms about the event and the overall feedback was very positive.  Many of them cited the inspirational speakers as the best thing about the event.  Many also mentioned feeled valued and cared about by the large number of organizations present.  Going forward, the Taskforce plans to repeat the Road to Work 2-3 times a year.

In a previous post I mentioned the Urban Institute's "Jail Administrator's Toolkit for ReEntry," which recommends that corrections professionals work with their local social service providers to serve their common clientele.  This is how we have approached it in Marin. 

What are some ways you have tried to collaborate in your community? 

What lessons have you learned?

(Check back again later for part 2 of this post - outcomes and lessons learned.)

NYC legal community works to enhance employment for formerly incarcerated

The New York City Bar Association released a report in March 2008 entitled "Legal Employers Taking the Lead: Enhancing Employment Opportunities for the Formerly Incarcerated." It's worth taking a look at today.

The Bar Association formed a Taskforce on Employment Opportunities for the Formerly Incarcerated to identify the barriers facing individuals seeking employment in the legal field and elsewhere, as well as ways to overcome them.

The Taskforce highlighted the importance of their goal with the following statistics:

Numerous studies have shown that an individual’s likelihood of committing a crime is correlated with his or her work status. A survey conducted by the Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics in 1997 disclosed that between 21 and 38 percent of prisoners were unemployed just prior being incarcerated, depending on their level of educational attainment.... The vast majority (89%) of individuals who violate the terms of their probation are unemployed at the time of the violation.

The report goes on to explore some of the barriers to employment, including laws barring ex-offenders from certain occupations and employers' reluctance to hire. The report cites a survey of 619 employers in the Los Angeles area who were asked whether they would definitely or probably hire an individual falling into one of the following categories, with the results showing that the formerly incarcerated fall at the bottom of the list:

Current or former welfare recipients ............93%

Recipients of a GED diploma ......................97%

Individuals unemployed for a year or more ......80%

Individuals with a spotty employment history ...66%

Ex-prisoners .........................................21%

Their final recommendations include encouraging law firms and other legal employers to be willing to hire and promote formerly incarcerated individuals, and to encourage their suppliers and subcontractors to do the same.  Furthermore, statutory and regulatory restrictions on hiring and licensing ex-offenders should be reviewed and modified. 

The Taskforce advocates enthusiastically for the use of workforce intermediaries to help individuals locate and retain employment, and for publicizing these resources since "[New York City] employers are virtually unaware of staffing resources in the form of intermediary organizations and transitional programs." [Emphasis added]

I recommend taking a closer look at this report. It includes several useful appendices, including a survey conducted with New York City law firms, a guide for employers on the proper use of criminal background checks, and information on programs in NYC that help the formerly incarcerated find employment and other resources.

I found it interesting although not surprising that the NYC legal community as employers were unaware of workforce development resources available to them. How is the awareness of services in your own community? Are there any organizations that you should reach out to and build relationships with to better help the formerly incarcerated stay out of prison and jail?

An online community addressing prisoner re-entry issues

If you're looking for online resources related to prisoner re-entry, you'll want to check out the National Institute of Corrections. They don't just provide data and information. They've created an online community that you can join and participate in.

The National Institute of Corrections has a Community page with lots of resources for workforce development professionals.  This website provides information on topics ranging from the 2009 Defendant/Offender Workforce Development Conference in Pittsburg, PA to "Improving the Employment Rates of Ex-Prisoners under Parole."

Click here for Workforce Developments' coverage of their 2007 conference.

Of particular interest may be the news/blog page or the discussion group on Offender Employment. The blog postings are conveniently tagged and organized into sub-categories, such One-Stops, Re-entry, and the Second Chance Act. 

NIC is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Prisons that

"provides training, technical assistance, information services, and policy/program development assistance to federal, state, and local corrections agencies. NIC also provides leadership to influence correctional policies, practices, and operations nationwide in areas of emerging interest and concern to correctional executives and practitioners as well as public policymakers."

To get started, take a look at their page which gives an overview of the Corrections Community, and describes the website as "a place for you to reach out for advice, share your knowlege, and network with your peers." 

Happy reading!

--Racy Ming

$17 million to set youth offenders on the right path

The Department of Labor recently announced $17 million in funds available for projects serving youth offenders. The three grant categories are very narrowly defined, so read carefully:

1) Youth Offender Planning Grants are available to county and city governments to design plans for helping returning youth offenders

2) Juvenile Offender Re-entry Grants will fund strategies to help youth returning home from correctional institutions. These funds are available to state and local juvenile justice agencies.

3) One Juvenile Offender Re-entry Grant "will be awarded to one organization to implement a model program for returning juvenile offenders in four cities."

A press release is here, and the full Solicitation for Grant Applications (SGA/DFA PY0809) is here.

Applications are due December 18, 2008.

"Prisons in Crisis" - a radio documentary

JoAnn Mar has produced an excellent radio documentary entitled Prisons In Crisis: A State of Emergency in California.

Segment one covers the health and overcrowding crisis.  Segment two goes into some of the history of the California prison system, and its transition from a national model of rehabilitation to its current state, after the federal government declared its war on crime.  Segment three discusses efforts to bring the system back under control, including reentry programs that have successfully helped people find treatment and employment and avoid returning to prison.

The website has quite a few resources, including a transcript of the documentary and a study guide that can be used as a tool in leading discussions.  Given the complexity of barriers facing ex-offenders looking for employment, this is useful background information for anyone working in this field.

"Nothing stops a bullet like a job"

I attended the third annual summit of the San Francisco Safe Communities Reentry Council yesterday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.  They had a series of panel presentations to discuss how to connect people to employment upon release, employment rights, and the benefits for employers that come with hiring ex-offenders.  Among the reccuring themes were the needs to address substance abuse and mental health issues.

One of the things I most appreciated about this summit was the opportunity to hear from formerly incarcerated individuals who have successfully transitioned to life after prison.  The keynote speaker was Joey Ray Lucero of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles.  One of their slogans: "Nothing stops a bullet like a job."  A third generation gang member, Mr. Lucero spoke eloquently of his personal journey growing up in a culture that valued silence and respect, his time incarcerated, and his current role working with at-risk gang-affiliated youth.

Homeboy Industries was founded by Father Greg Boyle in 1988, and has been saving lives through job training and placement assistance as well as other services.  Their businesses include Homeboy Bakery, Homeboy Silkscreen, Homeboy Maintenance, Homegirl Café, and others.  According to their website, "Former rivals find themselves working side by side, finding true community and friendship in place of the limited community of gang life."

Mr. Lucero said that they are willing to share the model for how they run their organization with anyone who is interested in starting a similar program.  Interested in learning more?  To contact them, click here.