After 17 years in prison, Damon Rodriguez was homeless and unemployed upon release. It was a situation he was all too familiar with: “I was in the streets since I was 12-years-old,” he says.
Without marketable skills, finding a job seemed impossible. But when he enrolled in Employment Services at The Fortune Society, the course of his life positively changed.
After graduating from our Green Construction Program, Damon found a job in the sustainable construction industry. “I’m now a supervisor at a construction company,” he says, “I earn $52 an hour, and am extremely grateful to where I am in my life.” His transformation would not have been possible without your continued generosity.
This #GivingTuesday, make a donation to help more people like Damon transform their lives.
This year, individual supporters like you helped us provided life-changing services to over 6,000 individuals coming home from prisons and jails. Specifically, we were able to:
- Help 591 clients earn industry-recognized certifications and obtain new jobs through our Employment Services program.
- Provide housing to 305 individuals through our innovative Housing programs, helping them take their first steps toward becoming self-sufficient members of the community.
- Save taxpayers $7,663,629 in incarceration costs through our Alternatives to Incarceration (ATI) programs, reducing the jail and prison population.
Your investments led to these positive results, but we still need your continued support to meet increasing demand.
There are many other justice-involved people like Damon still struggling to find employment. Most come from high-poverty, low-literacy neighborhoods with little access to quality education, social support, or job opportunities. Our clients reflect the challenges associated with such circumstances—in 2015, just under 3% of our clients in Employment Services had jobs upon enrollment.
All justice-involved people deserve to thrive as contributing members of their communities— that’s the kind of world we want to keep building. With your donation, we can continue doing just that.
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