Contact us:

Phone       
773.336.6086

E-mail
ntjn@heartlandalliance.org

Address                        
National Transitional Jobs Network
in c/o Heartland Alliance   
4411 N. Ravenswood         
2nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60640                         

• Transitional Jobs in the News
• Press Releases
• Related News Articles

Are you a journalist covering workforce development issues, welfare reform, emerging reauthorization legislation, or innovations in welfare to work strategies? Please contact Melissa Young, Coordinator of the National Transitional Jobs Network, to obtain background and referrals to members of the Network across the nation and information about programs in your state or city.

Transitional Jobs in the News

PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer aired a program Nov 10, 2006 on Transitional Jobs and the upcoming research study of the Joyce Foundation. Diane Williams of the Safer Foundation stressed the importance of Transitional Jobs for released prisoners: “A Transitional Job acknowledges a couple of things. It acknowledges that, when people come home, the time that they're most likely to get themselves in trouble is as soon as they get home. So you have an opportunity for a structured environment for them to go to quickly. The second item that is stressed is the fact that people also have a need for money immediately upon release.”

Veterans Day feature article in the Chicago Sun-Times, Nov 10, 2006:
"But our efforts cannot end with housing. Employment (for veterans) must be addressed as well. Transitional job programs would be extremely useful in this regard. A large percentage of homeless veterans exhibit the sorts of employment-blocking problems that transitional jobs programming successfully addresses. Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana has introduced the Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act of 2006 (S. 3607) that would set aside federal grants for states to create those programs. Our fervent hope is that Congress makes all three of these items a priority."  - John Bouman, Director of Advocacy, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law

Click here to view the entire article.

Press Releases

• Foundation Commits $5.1 Million to Support and Evaluate Promising Jobs Strategy for Ex-Offenders
  January 17, 2006
  The Joyce Foundation announces a three-year, $5.1 million study for the evaluation of Midwest Transitional Jobs programs that work with male ex-offenders.
  
  

Related News Articles

Workforce Development

• Innovative State Policies to Reduce Poverty and Expand the Middle Class
  by Institute on Assets and Social Policy, December 2005. Transitional Jobs programs are discussed as a key human capital development strategy. The Georgia-based TJ program, Georgia GoodWorks! is featured also.
  
• Big Shoulders, Big Challenges: Preparing Chicago's Workforce for the New Economy
  by Chicago Jobs Council, September 2005. The Chicago Jobs Council recommended the expansion of Transitional Jobs programs in the Chicago, IL region.
  

Welfare Reform

• Reforming Welfare Reform
  A special supplement issue from The American Prospect, Summer 2002
  Includes articles such as:
• Liberal Lessons from Welfare Reform
  by Christopher Jencks
  Why welfare-to-work turned out better than we expected, and what to do next. http://www.prospect.org/issue_pages/welfare/
• Money Also Matters
  by Virginia Knox. Children fare better when parents earn decent incomes.
• Welfare Reform's Hidden Alley
  by Robert Greenstein. Part of the praise given to welfare reform properly belongs to the Earned Income Tax Credit.