Although there are other programs that teach formerly incarcerated individuals entrepreneurial skills, Refoundry takes a slightly different approach. This Brooklyn-based not-for-profit has trained its pilot project participants to create home furnishings out of discarded materials and learn how to sell […]
Category Archives: Job Training Nonprofits
Together We Bake cooks up recipe for reentry success
Alexandria, Va., nonprofit Together We Bake takes women who need a second chance and turns them into job ready candidates. Its recipe: combine lessons in making chocolate chip cookies, granola and other goodies with experience doing inventory and making deliveries. […]
Drive Change food truck biz trains formerly incarcerated youth
While the food business often serves up employment opportunities for those in reentry, Drive Change takes the idea one step further. The New York City nonprofit’s Snow Day food truck sells an interesting menu of maple syrup-themed cuisine with a […]
Texas nonprofit hires ex-offenders to build houses for veterans
Maria Schneider is out to change the construction industry in Dallas, Texas, one ex-offender at time. Her way to do this: By building a nonprofit that sells rehabbed homes to veterans at below market rate prices and hires employees who […]
San Francisco Bay Area group delivers doula training program
In a unique program that may be the only one of its type in the nation, The East Bay Community Birth Support Project is training formerly incarcerated women and women of color to become doulas. For the uninitiated, a doula […]
Wisconsin prison timebank creates safety net, opportunities
Timebanking, an alternative economy in which people exchange services instead of cash, is a way to build community and redefine the value of work. And in the case of the Dane County Timebank in Madison, Wisconsin, it’s a way to […]
L.A. Kitchen cooks up program for training older ex-offenders
L.A. Kitchen, a startup nonprofit expected to launch early next year, will train older ex-offenders – those at least 60 years old – for food service jobs. It will also tackle the problem of hunger among the elderly and work […]
NEW finds success in placing women in trade union jobs
Those beginning the reentry process and starting to look for a job should seriously consider the trades – a type of employment that tends to be ex-offender friendly, can provide steady work and pays well with great benefits. And Nontraditional […]
Building boats helps youth offenders build confidence and job skills
An innovative wooden boatbuilding program in Alexandria, Va. helps young people, many of whom have been incarcerated, gain the skills, confidence and knowledge needed to prepare them for employment. Operated by the Alexandria Seaport Foundation, the program offers paid apprenticeships […]
The Bread Project rises to offer new opportunities to ex-offenders
As one of a growing number of social ventures employing ex-offenders springing up around the nation, the Emeryville, Calif.-based The Bread Project has created a unique program to train low-income people in culinary arts. And the organization recently hired Dale […]