REGISTER NOW: The 2006 National Transitional Jobs Network Conference- Strengthening Communities. Building the Workforce of the Future. Transitional Jobs Work. - will be held in Atlanta, Georgia, October 12-13, 2006, at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. 

Join program administrators, policy advocates, government officials, and funders to discuss how to design, implement, evaluate and advocate for Transitional Jobs programs to meet the needs of hard- to- employ populations across the country. The conference will spotlight TJ programs working with ex-offenders, welfare recipients, youth, and other hard-to-employ populations. Conference participants will have the opportunity to customize their conference experience through the selection of breakout sessions and visit a Transitional Jobs program in Atlanta, GA. Conference speakers will include Michael L. Thurmond, Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Labor; Dennis Schrantz, Director of Policy and Planning for the Michigan Department of Corrections; Shirley Franklin, Mayor of Atlanta; and Mason Bishop, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Employment and Training Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor. 

Conference participants will have the opportunity to customize their conference experience through the selection of breakout sessions and visit a Transitional Jobs program in Atlanta, GA.
 
REGISTRATION: To register for the conference online please click here.
HOTEL ROOMS: To book hotel rooms at the Hyatt Regency please click here.

Please check the NTJN website for updated  information.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact the NTJN at ntjn@heartlandalliance.org. The NTJN looks forward to seeing you at our conference in October!

The Joyce Foundation is awarding grants totaling nearly $5.4 million to test a promising strategy for enabling people leaving prisons to connect to jobs.  The Joyce grants provide the lynchpin for a $14.5 million initiative that will provide the first large-scale evaluation of whether “transitional jobs” can improve employment outcomes and reduce recidivism for the growing number of people, currently estimated at 600,000, who return home from the nation’s prisons each year.

Having successfully helped people with disabilities, long-time welfare recipients, and others who have difficulty finding work, transitional jobs programs provide temporary, subsidized employment combined with education, counseling, and placement assistance. 

$600,000 to Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, partnering with Jewish Vocational Services (JVS), the Wayne County Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative, and the Michigan Department of Corrections.  The project will identify prisoners, as part of the state’s pre-release planning program, and randomly assign some to transitional jobs in Goodwill’s light manufacturing plants, while others will receive job placement assistance from JVS.  Michigan DOC is contributing $1,360,000 to the program.

$600,000 to Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota, St. Paul, partnering with Amherst Wilder Foundation (AWF), the Minnesota Department of Corrections, and Ramsey County Community Corrections Department.   AWF will assign people leaving prison either to its own standard employment services or to a transitional jobs program at Goodwill/Easter Seals’ administrative, retail, and warehouse operations.  The state and county corrections departments will each contribute $252,000.

$600,000 to Heartland Human Care Services, Inc., Chicago, partnering with Behavioral Interventions (BI) and the Illinois Department of Corrections.  Heartland, a subsidiary of Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, will assign prisoners arriving at its new reporting center either to transitional jobs to be developed with nonprofit and for-profit employers, or to standard job placement services offered by BI.  Illinois DOC is contributing an initial $735,000 to the initiative.

$588,520 to The New Hope Project, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, partnering with Project Return, the Kaiser Group, and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. New Hope will identify prisoners prior to release, as well as walk-ins to its Milwaukee facility, and assign them either to transitional jobs at nonprofit and for-profit employers or to employment services offered by Project Return.  The Kaiser Group will help place participants completing transitional jobs in unsubsidized employment.  The Wisconsin Department of Corrections is contributing an initial $177,000 to the project; other funding comes from Making Connections Milwaukee, an initiative of the Annie E. Casey Foundation; the United Way; the Greater Milwaukee Foundation; and other private foundations. 

$583,014 to the Safer Foundation, Chicago.  Safer will assign participants either to its job placement services at scattered employment sites or to a transitional job at its Pivotal Staffing Services, LLC, which manages employment opportunities in recycling with Allied Waste Transportation.  After the initial period, participants will be placed in long-term employment opportunities with gradually declining supports.  Major funding for Safer comes from its staffing services contract with Allied Waste (funds salaries) and a Title XX Social Service Block Grant.

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The NTJN is hosted by Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights
4411 N. Ravenswood
Chicago, IL 60640
Phone: 773.728.5960 x.6286 Fax: 773.728.4907