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How unemployed Californians launched new careers in a pandemic with 9 weeks of training

Jeong Park

February 02, 2021 |

Sacramento Bee |

Multi-Media |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Sacramento, California

Digital Upskill Sacramento is providing 9-week paid training sessions to participants who want to enter the tech industry. The program is allowing people who didn’t have the time, resources, or opportunity before to get hands-on training in addition to potential employment opportunities. This initiative is a result of a collaboration between several organizations and funding from the city. The funds were allotted for job training in growing industries, especially as the pandemic resulted in the loss of many jobs.

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Inmates are learning to be their own bosses after they leave jail behind

Chase DiBenedetto

January 24, 2021 |

Mashable |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Charlotte, North Carolina

Inmates to Entrepreneurs has graduated 1 million people from its eight-week program that teaches incarcerated people how to start their own low-capital businesses. An extension of a free online entrepreneurship course, Starter U, the program offered in-person workshops until COVID forced it to go virtual. One study shows the unemployment rate in December 2020 for formerly incarcerated people was more than 27%, more than four times higher than the general public. Inmates to Entrepreneurs was started 28 years ago in North Carolina's prison system.

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'They probably saved my life' | Former inmate says nonprofit keeps him, others out of jail

Christine Byers

January 21, 2021 |

KSDK-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis' Concordance Academy of Leadership turns the traditional approach to prison re-entry programs on its head. Rather than pushing people just released from prison to find housing and a job, the academy pays its participants a living wage while it provides them with the counseling and other support they need not to slip back into trouble. Once their lives are stable, they focus in the 18-month program on employment. The 6-year-old program improves the chances of staying out of prison by more than 40%, according to one study. Concordance is raising the money it needs to expand to other cities.

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In a Brooklyn kitchen, a Statue of Liberty spirit offers a fresh start

Sarah Matusek

January 13, 2021 |

The Christian Science Monitor |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, New York, New York

Newly arrived immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers have found a pathway to employment through Emma’s Torch. The nonprofit eatery pays students to learn culinary skills. The program is an important stepping stone for the new arrivals to gain a foothold in the restaurant industry.

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Firefighter jobs difficult to find for women fire crew after prison

Catie Cheshire Sinead Hickey Miles Green

January 12, 2021 |

Cronkite News - Arizona PBS |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Arizona

Arizona's Inmate Wildfire Program trains incarcerated people to fight wildfires, paying them low prison wages to provide a critically needed service as wildfires grow more common. Members of the only all-female crew, from Perryville Prison, tell of their pride of accomplishment in doing a dangerous job, and of the rehabilitative benefits of the program. They also describe their frustrations when regulations often bar them from using their skills after release from prison.

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Newark cops, with reform, didn't fire a single shot in 2020

Tom Moran

January 10, 2021 |

NJ Advance Media |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Newark, New Jersey

In 2020, six years after the Justice Department imposed a series of reforms on the Newark Police Department, Newark police officers have reduced their use of force so much that they didn't fire their guns at all in 2020, nor did the city pay any brutality-lawsuit settlements. Reforms in training, including de-escalation tactics, all backed by supportive leadership and extensive community outreach, turned a "rogue department" of brutality and racism into a more trusted, effective force.

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The ex-monk and the Thai sex mafia: helping victims find another way

Edward Girardet

January 04, 2021 |

Global Geneva Magazine |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Thailand

Wat Arun Rajvaram Community Learning Centre, founded on Buddhist precepts by a former monk, has trained more than 250 Thai young women for work as nurse assistants, jobs aimed at keeping them out of the illicit sex trade, forced labor, and arranged marriages. High school graduates, ages 16 to 19, are selected in groups of 15-20 per year, mostly on scholarships paid by donors. They typically come from rural towns where poor families often sell their daughters to traffickers. Nearly all graduate and are guaranteed jobs at hospitals and health centers in Bangkok or elsewhere in Thailand.

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While many colleges are making big cuts during the pandemic, a few opt for permanent transformation

Jon Marcus

December 30, 2020 |

The Hechinger Report |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Unity, Maine

Across the U.S. many colleges and universities adapted their courses and curriculum to meet Covid safety guidelines, but many are seeing the pandemic as a catalyst for the necessary innovation, acceleration, and changes. Unity College in Maine is shifting the traditional semester system into eight, five-week terms both online and in-person, at a much lower price for students. Over in Colorado, Metropolitan State University pivoted its approach by creating a free program to retrain people who lost jobs due to the pandemic.

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Iranian women's group empowers amid pandemic by making masks

Vahid Salemi

December 29, 2020 |

Associated Press |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Iran, Tehran

An organization in Tehran, Iran is helping women "looking for work to make handicrafts" by allowing them to use donated sewing machines as a means of becoming self-sufficient despite high rates of unemployment. When the coronavirus pandemic impacted the market, however, they shifted to making masks. Specific sales figures for the masks aren't available, but participants say they are grateful to be able to learn a new skill for free.

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Hack Your Future, Belgium's coding school for refugees

Lorenzo Di Stasi

December 24, 2020 |

The Local |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Belgium

Hack your Future Belgium offers free IT training to migrants to help fill the country’s worker shortage in that sector and help newcomers gain skills and find work. Most participants are asylum seekers or refugees and all of the teachers are volunteers. Classes for the eight-month program are in English and held on weekends to be inclusive of those with other obligations. No previous IT knowledge or personal equipment is required, but selection is based on motivation and language skills. Students receive substantial coaching and support and about 85% have found an internship, job, or went back to school.

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