The New Hope Project has been selected to participate in a $14.5 million initiative designed to test strategies to help people leaving prison and jail connect to jobs.

The Joyce Foundation has awarded $5.4 million in grants to five programs in the Midwest to evaluate 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.

Agencies in Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, and St. Paul will use the Joyce funding to offer transitional jobs to men leaving prison, and researchers will compare the results against traditional employment services.

State and local corrections officials will collaborate to identify participants and, in most cases, provide additional funding. The grant awardees were announced by the foundation’s board at its July 20 meeting.

In the transitional jobs model, The New Hope Project will provide 200 participants with guaranteed access to employment through time-limited subsidized jobs, financial incentives and individualized support in employment coaching and planning.

The New Hope Project will cover the employee wages for up to four months for employers who provide real work and supervision for participants in order to build up their recent work history and experience.

"The economic picture has been bleak for many individuals with limited job skills or problematic work histories, but men coming out of prison face additional barriers in securing employment," said Julie Kerksick, executive director of the New Hope Project.

"We have seen how transitional jobs can help ex-offenders overcome their sense of hopelessness and powerlessness in the face of a very challenging job market.

"We look forward to putting that belief to the test of a random assignment evaluation."

According to the National Corrections Reporting Program for 2001, Milwaukee County ranks 21st out of 108 counties across the nation in terms of having the highest number of returning prisoners.

The Wisconsin Department of Corrections releases approximately 8,600 offenders into communities each year statewide, with an average of almost 3,600 offenders released to Milwaukee County.

Nationally, the recidivism rate for re-offense is more than 60% for those who do not have jobs or stable housing.

Wisconsin Department of Corrections data show that, in a three-year follow-up period for prison releases between 1980 and 2002, more than 34,500 instances of a new offense were documented, resulting in an overall recidivism rate of 38.7 percent.

"State officials, both elected and executive, recognize the growing problem of ex-offenders returning to their communities with few prospects for employment or positive re-connection," said Kerksick. "Reducing recidivism clearly is in the interest of our state, from a financial as well as a moral standpoint.

"It is our hope that this test will provide policy makers with hard data proving that the upfront investment in transitional jobs programs will pay off in terms of lower rates of recidivism."

The New Hope Project was granted $588,520 over three years from the Joyce Foundation and will partner with Project Return, the Kaiser Group, and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections in this initiative.

Milwaukee-based Project Return will provide employment services and The Kaiser Group will help participants find unsubsidized jobs after completing their transitional job. 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.

"We are extremely pleased to be a partner in The New Hope Project," Department of Corrections Secretary Matt Frank said.

"While serious, violent offenders need to be locked up for a very long time, we know that the vast majority of inmates will one day be returned to Wisconsin communities.

"Steady work experience and skills training improves the chances that these individuals will become law-abiding, productive citizens who are less likely to re-offend.

"We view our collaboration in this project as an investment in crime prevention and enhanced public safety."

The five projects will be evaluated by MDRC, a New York-based research and evaluation firm, in collaboration with the Urban Institute and the University of Michigan. Evaluators will examine long-term employment, income, and incarceration rates for participants who took transitional jobs and compare them to those who got standard job placement services.

The results of the study, due in 2009, should both establish whether transitional jobs are effective and also, by comparing different initiatives, identify models that work especially well and people who benefit most.

The evaluation is being jointly funded by Joyce, at $2.3 million over four years; the New York-based JEHT Foundation, which is contributing $1.1 million; and the U.S. Department of Labor, which is committing an initial $99,500.

"Everyone is looking for strategies to help these men connect to jobs, stay out of prison, support their families and contribute to their communities," said Joyce President Ellen S. Alberding. "We’re delighted at the enthusiastic collaboration of states, leading social service agencies, the U.S. Department of Labor, and other funders in this initiative.

"We hope the study will provide the evidence to direct significant future public investments in ways that can really make a difference for ex-prisoners, their families, and the rest of us who will benefit if these men can escape the vicious cycle of crime and imprisonment."

Chicago (BlackNews.com)--The Real Estate to Riches course, created by Shaun Jones is an easy, affordable, step-by-step plan that is so simple a 9-year-old could understand it.

The first time Shaun used his own course, he made a profit of $2,500. He made no prior out of pocket significant investment.

Shaun says that people think you need money to make money, when he has found that it is actually just the opposite.

This course will show you step-by-step how to make money, whether you have a job or you’re homeless.

Now, if you have about 15 hours a week and a desire to make your dream happen in real estate, you can be on your way to financial freedom.

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You can leave that dreadful dead end job, travel, and say goodbye to debt.

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Google helps African American businesses

by Dante Lee, Diversity City Media
Columbus, Ohio--African American businesses looking to market their services online should consider advertising with Google--the leader in search engine marketing.

Google is a multibillion dollar company, but small business owners should not be intimidated by this. Google offers effective advertising solutions that fit marketing budgets as low as $25 a month.

Advertising with Google is very effective because they allow you to bid on keywords that people use to search the web. For instance, if your company sells "African Art"--you can have it so that whenever someone types that into Google.com, your Web site listing will come up first. Google will only charge you when someone clicks on your ad, and the average cost-per-click can be as low as 5 cents.

What makes this so effective is that people will only click on your ad if they are interested in your services. This is called targeted marketing--you’re targeting interested consumers, opposed to just randomly marketing to people.

Companies that advertise on Google are always satisfied about this, and this is why Google is a billion dollar leader in the technology industry.

Here is a list of some Black Web sites that are already taking advantage of Google advertising: BlackNews.com, NAACP.org, BlackBusinessGrants.com, Africa-Imports.com, AfricanAmericanNovels.com, Black-Enterprise.com, BlackHistoryStamps.com, Carols-Daughter.com, BlackDoctor.org, AfricanServices.org, BlackSingles.com, and BlackPoetry-Society.com.

Because of the digital divide, many African Americans underestimate the power of the Internet. The reality, though, is that nearly $1 billion dollars in online transactions is generated every single day.

Google can help you get your piece of the pie!

For more information on Google advertising, interested ones should visit: www.Google.com/adwords.

Dante Lee is CEO and president of Diversity City Media--a multicultural marketing and public relations firm based in Columbus, Ohio.