Goodwill Industries® of Southeastern Louisiana Awarded $1.36 million Department of Labor Grant to Train Incarcerated Adults
Goodwill Industries® of Southeastern Louisiana (Goodwill) has been awarded a $1.36 million federal grant to provide training, case management, mentoring and employment services to incarcerated adults transitioning back into the community. Goodwill will serve approximately 170 men and women who are in work release programs, recovery houses and residential release centers.
The grant is part of $59 million the United States Department of Labor recently awarded to non-profit agencies to develop or expand programs to improve the employment opportunities for adults and youth involved in the criminal justice system. Goodwill of Southeastern Louisiana was the only nonprofit “Training To Work” grantee in Louisiana.
“A good job gives a person a sense of dignity and purpose, and creates a path to the middle class. Returning citizens deserve a second chance and an opportunity to find a good job,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez. “Expanding opportunity is not just the right thing to do; it’s an economic imperative. America is at its best when everyone shares its prosperity. The grants we are announcing today can help make that possible.”
Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Louisiana has a successful track record providing vocational rehabilitation services to the formerly incarcerated population. Goodwill’s last DOL grant (2012-2014) served 343 former offenders and had a 5 percent recidivism rate–far below the national average of 22 percent. Due to community need, Goodwill offered a smaller scale version of that program to former offenders through self-generated funds and supporting local grants from the Greater New Orleans Foundation and Edward Wisner Foundation after the initial grant ended.
About Goodwill Industries of Southeastern Louisiana
Goodwill is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to offering opportunities to people with disabilities and other employment disadvantages to improve their economic selfsufficiency through training, education, support services and employment. In 2014, 3,438 people received Goodwill’s employment and training services and 279 were placed into jobs. Goodwill is the original social enterprise—operating more than a dozen janitorial and grounds maintenance contracts and 18 retail stores in 14 cities—including Baton Rouge, Covington, Denham Springs, Gonzales, Hammond, Houma, Kenner, Mandeville, Metairie, New Orleans, River Ridge, Slidell, Walker and Zachary.