Prison Fellowship and CrossWalk Center are partnering to place Houston-area Academy graduates in living-wage careers.
A new partnership between Prison Fellowship and 70 Million Jobs will help provide reentry employment for thousands of returning citizens.
How Second-Chance Hiring Benefits a Company and Its Community
The Prison Fellowship Academy addresses criminogenic thinking while offering prisoners a chance to learn values and skills to help them thrive in life after prison.
Former drug addict and prisoner Jessica Towers is still in awe with how her life has turned out. Thanks to DC Central Kitchen, a nonprofit kitchen and training program, Jessica has a second chance she never dreamed was possible.
Reentry can be difficult, but Joseff isn't giving up just yet.
"I got up this morning, did my prayers, and just put the day in God's hands," says Joseff White.
Every year, hundreds of thousands of prisoners are released and return to society, and they need a second chance. The Church should be a place where they can easily find support and encouragement.
"There's a lot of untapped talent out there—people who haven't been given a chance because of barriers."
For many returning citizens, punishment does not end when they leave prison. Finding work becomes a daunting task and often an insurmountable barrier. Yet according to criminologists, work can be the critical difference between restoration and recidivism.
For many people who have spent time in prison, the most difficult barrier to overcome after release is the reentry into employment. In many instances, employers stop reading an application as soon as they see that someone has a criminal record.
A single question on a job application can disrupt a returning citizen's future: Have you ever been convicted of a felony?
A new initiative in Iowa is encouraging employers to consider hiring men and women with criminal records, highlighting the positive impact such hires can have for businesses and for their communities.
The United States Attorney’s Office will be presenting a series of three workshops across northern Iowa to help assist former prisoners to find and keep employment.
For many prisoners, the challenges and difficulties that come with incarceration don’t end when they leave prison for the outside world. Free from the monotonous routine and structured environment of prison, these men and women are thrown into a world that is unfamiliar, with little (if any) support structure, few contacts that will do anything other than lead them to reoffending, and bearing a “scarlet letter” that makes it virtually impossible to establish themselves as productive members of society.
