News and Events
REDUCING RECIDIVISM IN A RECESSION
A reception for the legal community was held May 20, 2009 at 6:30PM at the KPMG Heritage Center, 345 Park Avenue. The hosts were Honorable Barry A. Cozier, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C.; Steven M. Fishner, KPMG LLP; Honorable Robert G. M. Keating, Pace University; and William J. Snipes, Sullivan and Cromwell LLP. The evening is hosted by KPMG Forensic
CEO selected as semi-finalist for the New York Times Excellence Awards
CEO was recognized by the New York Times Company, the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York and the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers as a 2009 semifinalist of The New York Times Company Nonprofit Excellence Award. The New York Times Company Nonprofit Excellence Awards are presented annually to nonprofits in the New York City area (the five boroughs, Long Island and Westchester) for excellence in organizational management.
CEO Wins Appy Award
CEO Cheif Information Officer, Jessie Grenfell accepted an Appy Award from Salesforce.com on November 9, 2008, in San Francisco. CEO's Salesforce application was recognized with the nonprofit Power of Us award for its "best in class" utilization.
Second Year Evaluation Findings – Significantly Lower Rates of Recidivism
Findings from an independent, random-assignment evaluation of CEO programs show that people who enroll in CEO have significantly lower rates of recidivism on a variety of measures – including a 40 percent reduction in reincarceration for a new crime – two years after joining the program, an effect rarely seen in rigorous studies such as the one CEO underwent.
EMCF Investment in CEO’s 2009-2010 Business Plan
The Center for Employment Opportunities has adopted its newly completed business plan to strengthen its programs and infrastructure so it can effectively serve greater numbers of at-risk youth.
This plan, which serves as the blueprint for the organization's future direction, calls for CEO to:
Moreover, this plan has established specific performance benchmarks CEO and its board plan to hold itself accountable for over the next 2 years.
To support implementation of this plan, CEO received a $3.5 million investment from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF). Prior to this grant, EMCF conducted a comprehensive review of the organization, including the quality of its programs, strength of its business plan, depth of leadership, financial strength, commitment to evaluation, and a desire to grow larger and more effective. With this new investment, EMCF has invested a total of $10 million in CEO since the fall of 2004.
The New York City-based Edna McConnell Clark Foundation focuses on advancing opportunities for low-income youth (ages 9-24) in the United States. EMCF believes that significant and long-term investment in nonprofit organizations – with proven outcomes and growth potential – is one of the most efficient and effective ways to meet the urgent and unmet needs of low-income young people. The Foundation’s aim is to help develop and expand a pool of organizations that can serve thousands more low-income youth each year with effective services and programming.
CEO Academy - Learning that Works
More and more people are returning to communities from prison without the skills to find and keep sustainable jobs, CEO has developed the CEO Academy to bridge the gap between formerly incarcerated individuals and educational opportunities available in trade industries. The CEO Academy offers a clear and compelling path to higher paying meaningful jobs in growing trade occupations that represent fields of interest for those with criminal records who want to permanently turn their lives around.
The CEO Academy is a learning environment to enable formerly incarcerated individuals to meet the entrance requirements and succeed at industry-certified trade training. The industry-certified trade training will enable formerly incarcerated individuals to obtain the skills and experience needed to improve their capacity to find and retain well-paying, skilled-labor jobs – in electrical and plumbing fields.
The CEO Academy is modeled after bridge programs around the country that seek to connect workers with low basic skills to occupational training at community colleges and technical institutes. The goal of the program is to increase students’ math and reading performance, test-taking skills and knowledge of career paths in the targeted sectors so that they can move on to more advanced training at Bronx Community College and selected trade schools. The Academy will raise participants’ academic levels for entrance into trade training by combining literacy and numeracy instruction with information from and about the trades – a contextualized learning approach that works best with adults.
The CEO Academy is designed to improve the long-term employment prospects of formerly incarcerated people. The Academy will serve as a front end to established trade programs in community colleges and elsewhere, building skills that will allow formerly incarcerated people to take advantage of these highly regarded vocational training programs that have until now been inaccessible to them. Creating these opportunities is only part of the Academy’s goals: The CEO Academy will permit CEO to build upon its robust network of employers and its renowned ability to place formerly incarcerated people in full-time employment by creating a cadre of higher skilled workers ready to move to the next level of employment in a meaningful and ongoing way.
The CEO Academy marries best practices in two critical areas of workforce development: providing employment services for formerly incarcerated people and building educational partnerships between community-based organizations and community colleges. By combining these two practices into one comprehensive effort, the CEO Academy will open training opportunities and career pathways that are currently unavailable to most formerly incarcerated people because of skill deficits that have not been addressed.
The CEO Academy will play an important role in the emerging national dialogue around how society can get beyond short-term solutions for formerly incarcerated people returning home from prison and focus on long-term sustainable solutions that rebuild lives, families and communities through career advancement strategies.
CEO Develops Two-Year Business Plan
In developing CEO’s next business plan, CEO looked at the outcomes of CEO’s 2004-2008 Business Plan goals to serve more people, better. Since 2004, CEO has made dramatic increases in job placements and retention total job placements increased by 50% and job retention rates increased 88% for 180 days and 50% for 365 days. Since 2004, CEO also made organizational improvements including a new technology platform and an increased and diversified funding base. All this will help sustain, share and enhance CEO's work.
Based on these successes, CEO is building a platform for growth. CEO developed a 2009-2010 Business Plan to strengthen the sustainability of its core model and grow its impact on youth in NYC. In addition, the plan will allow CEO to begin leveraging this experience in other parts of the nation to inform CEO’s long-term strategy to significantly impact the lives of the formerly incarcerated. Specifically, CEO plans to:
CEO will evaluate the outcomes of these programs and has developed a learning agenda to inform CEO’s long-term, strategic growth.
Click here for the Executive Summary of the 2009-2010 Business Plan
Salesforce.com Spotlights CEO's innovative use of Technology
CEO started using the customer relations management platform Salesforce.com in 2007 to help better track outcomes and improve service delivery. Salesforce.com allows CEO's staff access to real time data that integrates intake, life skills, transitional jobs, job coaching, job development and retention. Salesforce also improves the ability to make stronger job matches based on the characteristics of the participant, the employer and the job - these strong job matches translate into increased job retention. Learn more at Salesforce.com.
NYCETC Honors CEO Employee
On May 1, 2008, at the Opportunity Awards reception, the New York City Employment & Training Coalition (NYCETC) awarded Gail Douglas, a CEO Workforce Development Manager, the Workforce Staff/Bonnie Potter Opportunity Award. This award recognizes a staff member who connects participants to opportunity and who also exemplifies dedication and plays a pivotal role in furthering the mission of his or her agency, while having an impact on participants’ lives.
A reception for the legal community was held May 20, 2009 at 6:30PM at the KPMG Heritage Center, 345 Park Avenue. The hosts were Honorable Barry A. Cozier, Epstein Becker & Green, P.C.; Steven M. Fishner, KPMG LLP; Honorable Robert G. M. Keating, Pace University; and William J. Snipes, Sullivan and Cromwell LLP. The evening is hosted by KPMG Forensic
CEO selected as semi-finalist for the New York Times Excellence Awards
CEO was recognized by the New York Times Company, the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York and the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers as a 2009 semifinalist of The New York Times Company Nonprofit Excellence Award. The New York Times Company Nonprofit Excellence Awards are presented annually to nonprofits in the New York City area (the five boroughs, Long Island and Westchester) for excellence in organizational management.
CEO Wins Appy Award
CEO Cheif Information Officer, Jessie Grenfell accepted an Appy Award from Salesforce.com on November 9, 2008, in San Francisco. CEO's Salesforce application was recognized with the nonprofit Power of Us award for its "best in class" utilization.
Second Year Evaluation Findings – Significantly Lower Rates of Recidivism
Findings from an independent, random-assignment evaluation of CEO programs show that people who enroll in CEO have significantly lower rates of recidivism on a variety of measures – including a 40 percent reduction in reincarceration for a new crime – two years after joining the program, an effect rarely seen in rigorous studies such as the one CEO underwent.
EMCF Investment in CEO’s 2009-2010 Business Plan
The Center for Employment Opportunities has adopted its newly completed business plan to strengthen its programs and infrastructure so it can effectively serve greater numbers of at-risk youth.
This plan, which serves as the blueprint for the organization's future direction, calls for CEO to:
- Grow to serve 1,400 youth per year through direct and community capacity-building services
- Expand geographically in NYC and NYS
- Grow retention outcomes
- Establish a CEO Academy to support career, wage growth
- Demonstrate CEO’s ability to increase its national leadership & export its capacity to other jurisdictions
Moreover, this plan has established specific performance benchmarks CEO and its board plan to hold itself accountable for over the next 2 years.
To support implementation of this plan, CEO received a $3.5 million investment from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF). Prior to this grant, EMCF conducted a comprehensive review of the organization, including the quality of its programs, strength of its business plan, depth of leadership, financial strength, commitment to evaluation, and a desire to grow larger and more effective. With this new investment, EMCF has invested a total of $10 million in CEO since the fall of 2004.
The New York City-based Edna McConnell Clark Foundation focuses on advancing opportunities for low-income youth (ages 9-24) in the United States. EMCF believes that significant and long-term investment in nonprofit organizations – with proven outcomes and growth potential – is one of the most efficient and effective ways to meet the urgent and unmet needs of low-income young people. The Foundation’s aim is to help develop and expand a pool of organizations that can serve thousands more low-income youth each year with effective services and programming.
CEO Academy - Learning that Works
More and more people are returning to communities from prison without the skills to find and keep sustainable jobs, CEO has developed the CEO Academy to bridge the gap between formerly incarcerated individuals and educational opportunities available in trade industries. The CEO Academy offers a clear and compelling path to higher paying meaningful jobs in growing trade occupations that represent fields of interest for those with criminal records who want to permanently turn their lives around.
The CEO Academy is a learning environment to enable formerly incarcerated individuals to meet the entrance requirements and succeed at industry-certified trade training. The industry-certified trade training will enable formerly incarcerated individuals to obtain the skills and experience needed to improve their capacity to find and retain well-paying, skilled-labor jobs – in electrical and plumbing fields.
The CEO Academy is modeled after bridge programs around the country that seek to connect workers with low basic skills to occupational training at community colleges and technical institutes. The goal of the program is to increase students’ math and reading performance, test-taking skills and knowledge of career paths in the targeted sectors so that they can move on to more advanced training at Bronx Community College and selected trade schools. The Academy will raise participants’ academic levels for entrance into trade training by combining literacy and numeracy instruction with information from and about the trades – a contextualized learning approach that works best with adults.
The CEO Academy is designed to improve the long-term employment prospects of formerly incarcerated people. The Academy will serve as a front end to established trade programs in community colleges and elsewhere, building skills that will allow formerly incarcerated people to take advantage of these highly regarded vocational training programs that have until now been inaccessible to them. Creating these opportunities is only part of the Academy’s goals: The CEO Academy will permit CEO to build upon its robust network of employers and its renowned ability to place formerly incarcerated people in full-time employment by creating a cadre of higher skilled workers ready to move to the next level of employment in a meaningful and ongoing way.
The CEO Academy marries best practices in two critical areas of workforce development: providing employment services for formerly incarcerated people and building educational partnerships between community-based organizations and community colleges. By combining these two practices into one comprehensive effort, the CEO Academy will open training opportunities and career pathways that are currently unavailable to most formerly incarcerated people because of skill deficits that have not been addressed.
The CEO Academy will play an important role in the emerging national dialogue around how society can get beyond short-term solutions for formerly incarcerated people returning home from prison and focus on long-term sustainable solutions that rebuild lives, families and communities through career advancement strategies.
CEO Develops Two-Year Business Plan
In developing CEO’s next business plan, CEO looked at the outcomes of CEO’s 2004-2008 Business Plan goals to serve more people, better. Since 2004, CEO has made dramatic increases in job placements and retention total job placements increased by 50% and job retention rates increased 88% for 180 days and 50% for 365 days. Since 2004, CEO also made organizational improvements including a new technology platform and an increased and diversified funding base. All this will help sustain, share and enhance CEO's work.
Based on these successes, CEO is building a platform for growth. CEO developed a 2009-2010 Business Plan to strengthen the sustainability of its core model and grow its impact on youth in NYC. In addition, the plan will allow CEO to begin leveraging this experience in other parts of the nation to inform CEO’s long-term strategy to significantly impact the lives of the formerly incarcerated. Specifically, CEO plans to:
- Increase the number of youth served by one-third
- Increase retention outcomes
- Strengthen economics of core model
- Develop a new community-based presence outside of Manhattan and expand transitional jobs operations outside New York City
- Develop a CEO Academy to build trade skills & advances wages
- Increase CEO's national leadership
CEO will evaluate the outcomes of these programs and has developed a learning agenda to inform CEO’s long-term, strategic growth.
Click here for the Executive Summary of the 2009-2010 Business Plan
Salesforce.com Spotlights CEO's innovative use of Technology
CEO started using the customer relations management platform Salesforce.com in 2007 to help better track outcomes and improve service delivery. Salesforce.com allows CEO's staff access to real time data that integrates intake, life skills, transitional jobs, job coaching, job development and retention. Salesforce also improves the ability to make stronger job matches based on the characteristics of the participant, the employer and the job - these strong job matches translate into increased job retention. Learn more at Salesforce.com.
NYCETC Honors CEO Employee
On May 1, 2008, at the Opportunity Awards reception, the New York City Employment & Training Coalition (NYCETC) awarded Gail Douglas, a CEO Workforce Development Manager, the Workforce Staff/Bonnie Potter Opportunity Award. This award recognizes a staff member who connects participants to opportunity and who also exemplifies dedication and plays a pivotal role in furthering the mission of his or her agency, while having an impact on participants’ lives.
"Effects on these measures are rarely seen in rigorous evaluations."
- MDRC