Strengthening Workforce Training and Reintegration Supports for Justice-Involved Individuals
Black, Latino, Native American, and other young adults of color are disproportionately represented in the justice system, receive more severe sentences for comparable offenses, and typically come from communities that have experienced the harmful effects of segregation based on race, place, and class. They also face more barriers to labor market participation and educational enrollments after justice involvement.
Justice-involved individuals face complex and persistent barriers to long-term economic self-sufficiency—a challenge that is even more apparent among those who were incarcerated between the ages of 16 and 25. Accordingly, the PROMISE Center seeks to identify approaches that could help large numbers of justice-involved young adults connect to supports that lead to living-wage jobs and successful reintegration into society.
A Landscape Analysis
PROMISE is beginning this work with a landscape analysis of the current evidence on programs that engage justice-involved young adults in education and training, both pre- and post-release, with a focus on identifying promising practices and programs for future partnership.
PROMISE hopes to partner with promising programs and the youth they serve. Together, we aim to identify effective, developmentally appropriate, and culturally relevant approaches to help formerly incarcerated young adults connect to supports that will help them successfully transition into society with living-wage employment.
The PROMISE Center is directly supported by the AIR Equity Initiative, AIR’s $100+ million five-year investment to advance equity in several important areas: workforce development, education, public safety and policing, and health. The AIR Equity Initiative is committed to investing in the generation and use of high-quality evidence that address the harmful effects of segregation by race and place.
