In the months leading up to the conference, the National Transitional Jobs Network (NTJN) will be highlighting the many learning opportunities available at the conference to advance the Transitional Jobs (TJ) strategy. Whatever your role—advocate, employer, funder, policymaker or program administrator—the 2008 conference will have something for you! If you are new to the field, participate in sessions designed to introduce you to the program model, the basics of funding, budgeting, and staffing, and get tips from established program providers. Already a TJ provider? Participate in a series of skill-building sessions designed to take your program to the next level. The 2008 conference will also feature opportunities to learn more about TJ for youth and for people with criminal records, employment-based social enterprise, and strategies for advancing the TJ model at the local, state, and federal levels.

This month, the NTJN is happy to profile our conference co-sponsor, REDF, and highlight their contribution in facilitating a series of sessions on employment-based social enterprise.

REDF, a nonprofit organization formerly known as the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund, provides financial investments and forms alliances with a portfolio of businesses in order to employ people who would otherwise remain living in long-term poverty. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, REDF identifies and facilitates the most promising, market-oriented employment opportunities that move those people facing the greatest barriers into the workforce, giving them the skills to thrive. Operating out of the San Francisco Bay Area, REDF supports and documents flagship examples of what can be done at scale around the country, and disseminates practical tools to help others replicate these efforts.

REDF uses a hands-on, committed approach to work with a carefully selected portfolio of well-run nonprofits to create thriving social enterprises that deliver needed goods and services, and provide jobs to more than 600 people each year. REDF assists these groups in meeting financials goals while also accomplishing a distinctive social purpose by employing people who have been shut out of the workforce. 

The social enterprises that REDF has worked with have achieved extraordinary results. For example, 75% of those hired are still working 2 years later, many in private sector jobs, while an additional 11% are in vocational education or training. In addition to impressive job retention, these employees' homelessness has declined significantly, and recidivism rates have plummeted.

Inspired by these promising results, REDF is eager to join forces with others in the California community and around the country to demonstrate the possibilities and the value of offering job opportunities to those who have been left out of the workforce. All Americans can agree that productive work is an important part of the solution. REDF is learning how to make work more available to those with the most profound barriers and fewest opportunities.

Through its sponsorship role in the 2008 National Transitional Jobs Conference, REDF hopes to share its knowledge and collaborate with other organizations working toward similar goals. The objective of the REDF sponsored conference track is to help organizations learn more about social enterprise as an effective Transitional Jobs model through a series of interactive sessions led by experts in the field.

To highlight a few of the sessions that REDF will be facilitating:

• Social Enterprise 101 - A Model for Transitional Jobs
  This session will highlight nonprofit organizations that currently operate social enterprises in order to provide jobs for individuals with significant employment barriers. Session attendees will have a chance to join in the discussion of pros and cons of this Transitional Jobs model, including an opportunity to role-play.  

• The Cost of Doing Good: Defining and Tracking Social Costs
  Social enterprises designed to employ people with barriers to employment take on costs beyond those of a typical business. What are those costs? How can they be forecast and tracked? This conference session is designed to help providers think about these critical questions.

• Creating a Business: Assessing and Planning
  This 3-session series covers the essential steps in creating a new business. Before you start that Laundromat, landscape business, or cafe, this is a must-attend session! The series will include:
• Pre-feasibility: Best practices;
• Feasibility: How to screen and select the right social enterprise business idea; and
• How to create a social enterprise-specific business plan.

• Hot Topics in Social Enterprise: Overview and Breakout Groups
  This session will provide a basic overview of three topic that are hot in social enterprise discussion circles—marketing, profitability, and scale. Attendees will then have an opportunity to breakout into smaller groups to discuss these new trends.

For more information on REDF or social enterprise as an effective TJ model, please contact:

Vanessa Collins
Phone: (415) 561-6679
Email: vcollins@redf.org

Click here to visit the REDF website.

If you are interested in learning more about social enterprise as an effective TJ model, we encourage you to check out the following programs:

Rubicon Programs, Inc.
Rubicon Programs, Inc. provides a broad array of job training and supportive services for individuals who have disabilities, are experiencing homelessness, or are otherwise economically disadvantaged, in the San Francisco Bay Area and Contra Costa County. They operate Rubicon Bakery and Landscape Services, creating valuable, high-quality products and services while providing a pathway out of poverty for a workforce of formerly homeless, chronically unemployed, and men and women with disabilities.

For more information, contact:

Drew Douglas, Deputy Director, Workforce Services
Phone: (510) 809-1319
Email: drewd@Rubiconprograms.org

Click here to visit the Rubicon Programs website.

Cleanslate
Cleanslate is the social enterprise arm of the Cara program, located in Chicago, which assists at-risk individuals in achieving real, lasting success through training, job placement, and critical support services. Cleanslate operates a neighborhood beautification business that cleans sidewalks, parkways, public gardens, and vacant lots, while providing a real opportunity for individuals to learn and apply new skills, earn money, improve their long-term job prospects, and make a real difference in the community.

For more information, contact: 

John Rush, Managing Director
Phone: (312) 446-3674
Email: Contact@cleanslatechicago.org

Click here to visit the Cleanslate website.

More Than Words
More Than Words is a unique youth-run social enterprise bookstore in Waltham, Massachusetts. Administered by Teen LEEP, More Than Words helps empower youth with leadership, employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities that equip them with marketable skills critical for their transition to adulthood. 

For more information, contact:

Jodi Rosenbaum Tillinger
Phone: (781) 788-0035
Email: jodi@mtwyouth.org

Click here to visit the More Than Words website.

Growing Home
Growing Home is a social enterprise whose mission is to provide job training and create employment opportunities for people experiencing homelessness and people with low-incomes in Chicago within the context of a nonprofit organic agriculture business. While working side by side with program staff on farm sites, program participants learn job and life skills as well as gain valuable hands-on experience with organic agriculture.

For more information, contact:

Harry Rhodes, Executive Director
Phone: (312) 435-8601
Email: hrhodes@growinghomeinc.org

Click here to visit the Growing Home website.

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