About RExO

Ready 4 Work

Overview

The Reintegration of Ex-Offenders - Adult Program is designed to strengthen urban communities through an employment-centered program that incorporates mentoring, job training, and other comprehensive transitional services. This program seeks to reduce recidivism by helping former inmates find work when they return to their communities, as part of an effort to build a life in the community for everyone. In the local areas served through this initiative, faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs) will provide comprehensive and coordinated services to ex-offenders in the following three areas:

Employment:
Employment is a critical stabilizing factor for ex-offenders and this initiative will stress job placement, job retention, and increasing the earnings potential of released prisoners. FBCOs will offer job training and job placement services in coordination with business, local One-Stop Career Centers, educational institutions, and other employment providers. Partnering faith-based and community organizations will provide each program participant with work-readiness, soft skills training, mentoring, job placement or referral for job placement, and post-placement support. Educational services and hard-skills training must be provided through vouchers by organizations that grant industry-recognized credentials. These vouchers should be used to supplement the limited supply of individual training accounts available through the workforce system.

Vocational Training and Educational Interventions:
Educational attainment is increasingly critical in the global economy. A vast majority of jobs now require more than a high school diploma. The Center for Economic Policy Research found that "[t]ime behind bars can lead to deterioration in a worker's "human capital," including formal education, on-the-job experience, and even "soft skills" such as punctuality or customer relations."[1] In order to improve employment opportunities for ex-offenders, opportunities for education attainment and industry-recognized certificates are essential. FBCOs will conduct assessments and work with participants to create individual development plans to connect participants to continuing education services (either toward the attainment of a high school diploma or GED or toward the attainment of an Associate's or Bachelor's degree), based on the participant's needs and interests, by partnering with adult education agencies, community colleges and other education providers. Participants must also be given opportunities for training in work readiness and soft skills. As well, FBCOs should partner to offer opportunities for advanced vocational training with the goal of industry-recognized certifications, particularly in high-growth, high-demand fields in the local economy and in the "green" industry.

Mentoring:
FBCOs will provide post-release mentoring and other services essential to reintegrating ex-offenders in coordination with the corrections, parole, and probation structure. Participating adult ex-offenders will be matched with appropriate mentors who will be primarily responsible for supporting the returnee in the community and the work place. Mentors will offer support, guidance, and assistance with the many challenges faced by ex-offenders.

Target Population to be Served

Individuals 18 years old and older, who have been convicted as an adult and imprisoned pursuant to an Act of Congress or a State law, and who have never been convicted of a sex-related offense can be served with these grants. Individuals should be enrolled in the program within 180 days after their release from prison or a halfway house. Eligible participants may be served, in a limited scope, if they are incarcerated but within three months of release.

Allowable Uses of Grant Funds

DOL grant funds can be used to provide a variety of services to returning prisoners, including workforce development services, job training, on-the-job training, work experience, basic skills remediation, counseling and case management, mentoring, and other reentry services. DOL grant funds may not be used for housing or substance abuse treatment services.

Ready 4 Work

The Prisoner Reentry Initiative (PRI) was designed to expand the elements of an earlier prisoner reentry project called Ready4Work (R4W). Ready4Work was an ETA pilot project that also helped returning offenders by linking them to faith-based and community institutions that help them find work and avoid a relapse into a life of criminal activity. R4W was launched in 2003 and was a three-year pilot program to address the needs of ex-prisoners utilizing Faith-Based and Community Organizations (FBCO). This $25 million program was jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the U.S. Department of Justice, Public/Private Ventures — a Philadelphia-based research and demonstration non-profit — and a consortium of private foundations.

Ready4Work placed community organizations at the center of social service delivery to ex-offenders. It placed an emphasis on employment-focused programs that incorporate mentoring, job training, job placement, case management and other comprehensive transitional services. The following select organizations were chosen to provide services to adult ex-offenders in eleven cities:

City of Memphis Second Chance Ex-Felon Program — Memphis, Tennessee

Allen Temple Housing and Economic Development Corp — Oakland, California

East of the River Clergy Police and Community Partnership — Washington, DC

Exodus Transitional Community — East Harlem, New York

Holy Cathedral/Word of Hope Ministries — Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Operation New Hope — Jacksonville, Florida
SAFER Foundation — Chicago, Illinois

Search for Common Ground — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Union Rescue Mission — Los Angeles, California
Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church — Houston, Texas

America Works Detroit — Detroit, MI

For further information on the R4W program, including participant demographics, outcomes and resources, please click here.