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This past July, around the time many Americans were celebrating the anniversary of the nation’s founding, Ohio resident Brian celebrated a personal milestone: 365 days of employment post-incarceration.

The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) recently held its September Leadership Retreat. Over 140 leaders from CEO’s 12 states and 30 offices converged on lower Manhattan in New York City. It was the first time we had all been together since before the pandemic. Over three days we celebrated, learned, and were inspired.

George calls his full-time job at Center for Employment Opportunities “an answered prayer.” “Not just the job, but to be able to work alongside others,” George says. “To be able to tell them, hey, I know what it takes. Of course, you have to put in the work, but you have people working with you that want to help you.”

Matrice, a Denver native, was raised with her brother by a single mother in Kansas City, Missouri. She recalls her mother struggling to raise them alone but says they always made the best of it. Despite being a straight-A, honor-roll student, and a girl scout, Matrice says her mother was very strict. She presumes it was to keep her out of trouble.

I’ve been an information technology support specialist in Detroit for half a year now, and I consider myself lucky because I love my job helping other people solve problems. But it wasn’t easy getting here.

Jose heard about the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) while residing at a halfway house in Philadelphia. With a referral from his unit team, he soon began working with a CEO crew cleaning up the streets of Philly, earning daily pay and receiving coaching to pursue the job of his choice. After 24 years of incarceration, he says the most troubling part of reentry was the fear of recidivism.

Think of a job a person might apply to after serving a prison sentence. Does a museum professional come to mind? Perhaps it should. The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) recently teamed up with a Smithsonian Institution internship program to help make such a career path possible.

The city should work with unions and re-entry providers to create work opportunities that facilitate and track long-term success. Across New York City, the public safety crisis is most acutely seen and felt in low-income communities of color. Indeed, gun violence is ravaging neighborhoods already hit hardest by COVID-19, mass incarceration, unemployment, and low-wage work.

For Heather, a Colorado native, things were looking good in 2020 for the first time in awhile. She was released from incarceration in December of 2019 and the following February she began job training and transitional work with the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), a reentry employment provider. But she was having trouble securing a permanent position.

Billy has been enjoying spending time with his family, including his two boys, who are both in their twenties now, as well as learning to appreciate new outdoor activities, like camping, hiking, and visits to the beach. Things were much harder when he was released.

The Beloved Benefit, a community impact event that galvanizes the city of Atlanta, aims to inspire positive change through greater economic mobility.

Jimmy Parker, the founder, CEO, and president of STAT Overnight Delivery, a medical delivery service, knew from the beginning that he wanted his company to be an employer that focused on people’s futures rather than their backgrounds.