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CEO Updates:

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April 29, 2025
BronxNet Open

Open | Center for Employment Opportunities

Jonathan Calixto is joined by Samra Haider, the President of the Center For Employment Opportunities, to address the employment barriers facing individuals after their release from incarceration.

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April 16, 2025
City & State New York/Council Members Crystal Hudson and Sandy Nurse

Opinion: Direct cash assistance can help drive down our state's prison population

Providing direct support to people returning from incarceration can provide them with greater economic stability and job security, helping to break the cycle of recidivism.

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April 4, 2025
Public News Service

Mississippi urged to invest in jobs, not jails, to cut prison costs

This week, the Center for Employment Opportunities launched "At What Cost?" The campaign says redirecting funds from incarceration to job training could save taxpayers billions and reduce repeat offenses.

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April 1, 2025
Ad Age

11 creative campaigns to know about today

In time for Fair Chance Month, the Center for Employment Opportunities’ latest campaign questions society’s current funding priorities by comparing the cost of incarcerating people in the U.S. versus investing in re-entry services that provide housing, employment and support for individuals returning from prison. “At What Cost?” features conversations with formerly incarcerated people asking them what it would be like for them to have the amount of money it took to incarcerate them. The spot was created in-house.

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March 19, 2025
Spectrum News 1

Advocates push for passage of Reentry Assistance Bill to help formerly incarcerated people afford to rebuild

Advocates in New York for the formerly incarcerated are pushing for the passage of the Reentry Assistance Bill, which aims to provide more monetary support to people reentering society after being in prison.

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February 27, 2025
Rolling Stone

This New York Bill Aims to Give Monthly Payments to People Getting Out of Prison

Advocates say New York’s Reentry Assistance Bill will help lower recidivism among formerly incarcerated people and offer genuine aid

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December 5, 2024
NY.gov

Training New Yorkers for Good Paying Jobs of the Future: Governor Hochul Announces More Than $15.5 Million Awarded Through the Office of Strategic Workforce Development

Governor Kathy Hochul announced the New York State Office of Strategic Workforce Development has awarded more than $15.5 million in additional grants to support five projects across Upstate New York. Funding will help CEO to expand its successful construction pre-apprenticeship training for justice-impacted New Yorkers, increasing capacity in Buffalo, and piloting the program in Albany and Rochester.

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July 26, 2024
Queens Chronicle

Ozone Park cleanup initiative kicks off

State Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Woodhaven) and Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Ozone Park) met with the Center for Employment Opportunities last week to participate in its community cleanup initiative.

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May 17, 2024
Yahoo! News

NY would pay ex-inmates $2,550 after prison under bill to aid transition, curb recidivism

New York could give former inmates up to $2,550 after they leave prison under a pending bill meant to help them pay for food and rent while they seek jobs and stability. Advocacy groups backing the bill plan to rally at the Capitol in Albany on Monday to push for its passage in the last three weeks of this year's legislative session. The proposal was first introduced in the Senate a year ago and remains in committee in both that chamber and the Assembly.

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May 8, 2024
CBS 6 Albany

New York boosts post-prison support fund in ongoing recidivism reduction effort

CAPITAL REGION, NY (WRGB) — Oudahsa Gause of Albany knows what it means to start over. “Learning to re-adjust to the outside again, inside of prison you're closed in, so nothing matters; the biggest issues don't matter but coming home and trying to set up a whole life all over again,” she said. Gause was released from prison in 2023 after serving four years on gun possession charges stemming from an arrest back in 2019. Like other New Yorkers, she was handed $40 from the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision when released.

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March 5, 2024
The City

A New Way to Help New Yorkers Adjust to Life After Prison

Under a newly proposed bill by a former incarcerated state lawmaker, New Yorkers released from prison could receive $2,500 in direct cash payments over a year, if it becomes law.

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February 6, 2024
QNS

CM Joann Ariola leads effort to keep streets in southeast Queens clean

Council Member Joann Ariola aims to keep the streets clean in her southeast Queens district with the help of city agencies and an employment program looking to improve the area.

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December 21, 2023
RochesterFirst.com

Center for Employment Opportunities funding announced

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Senator Samra Brouk and Assemblymember Sarah Clarke announced $100,000 in funding for Rochester’s Center for Employment Opportunities office on Thursday.

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December 20, 2023
ABC7 NY

Center for Employment Opportunities opens their doors for formerly incarcerated people

She says she continued to pay for her crime after she was released - that is until a parole officer told her about the Center for Employment Opportunities, or CEO.

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November 3, 2023
The New York Community Trust

“I can see myself doing this for the rest of my life.” Finding a calling after incarceration

Michael Holder credits the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) with helping him find his professional calling and achieve job security. CEO provides employment services including community support, job-readiness training, and job placement and retention assistance—to individuals recently released from incarceration.

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August 17, 2023
Buffalo Next

Buffalo Next: Uncovering talent in a tight job market

McClam was part of a recent Buffalo Niagara Partnership discussion about cultivating “hidden talent.” The speakers agreed that employers can find good people to hire, if they know where to look for them.

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August 3, 2023
Crime Report

The Antidote to Street Crime​: Outsourcing, Employment, and the Recently Convicted

When I was a newly-minted Probation Officer in 1982 with the New York City Department of Probation in the Bronx, one of my first probationers was a middle-aged man who was convicted of Criminal Possession of a Firearm that he used to threaten his estranged wife with.

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July 12, 2023
Decarceration Nation

Episode 142: Dr. Genevieve Rimer and Samra Haider - Center for Employment Opportunities

Joshua B. Hoe talks to Dr. Genevieve Rimer and Samra Haider about CEO's commitment to reimagining America's criminal justice system. Listen Now!

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June 22, 2023
CardRates.com

Donations to the Center for Employment Opportunities Support People Returning from Prison

Everyone has the potential to build a brighter future for themselves, their families, and their communities. Card rewards and other donations help the Center for Employment Opportunities give more people that chance.

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April 29, 2023
New York Times

The Unemployment Gap Between Black and White New Yorkers Is Widening

The gulf between Black and white unemployment rates in New York City is now the widest it has been this century, exceeding even the largest gap during the Great Recession, according to a new report.

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April 27, 2023
NYN Media

Opinion: Background checks and blanket hiring exclusions don’t reduce risk – they limit opportunities

Hiring restrictions, including background checks, prevent qualified job applicants from securing employment. For a work-obsessed nation in the midst of a labor shortage, we still go to great lengths to prevent people with past criminal convictions who want to work from accessing a job.

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March 15, 2023
AMNY

Activists vow to protect bail reform and close Rikers Island at Manhattan rally

On the last day of Black History Month, around 40 protestors gathered outside Governor Kathy Hochul’s Manhattan office, demanding the governor lay off her proposed bail reform rollback. Simultaneously, they also called for the permanent closure of Rikers Island.

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February 27, 2023
The Tennessean

Inclusive hiring: New LinkedIn partnership helps job seekers with criminal backgrounds

Genevieve Rimer's journey from incarceration to becoming a college-educated social worker illustrates that there is life after prison. And thanks to a new digital educational program that she’s leading at LinkedIn, Rimer hopes to prepare thousands of Americans with felony convictions for employment, a major step toward new opportunities and new identities.

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January 18, 2023
Metro Atlanta CEO

Truist Foundation Awards Center for Employment Opportunities $1M

Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), the nation’s largest provider of comprehensive employment services to people returning from jail or prison, has received a $1 million grant from Truist Foundation.

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January 11, 2023
Fund For Shared Insight

Researchers Partner with CEO’s Participant Advisory Council to Learn How to Improve Feedback

The Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) provides employment services and other supports to individuals who have recently returned home from incarceration. CEO believes that organizations that listen to their participants and incorporate their voices into program decisions are better able to provide accessible and effective services.

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January 3, 2023
Minority Reporter

This Winter the City Partners with RTS to Help with Snow Removal

Mayor Malik D. Evans recently said that a first-of-its-kind snow-removal partnership with Regional Transit Service (RTS) and Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), which will clear snow from 85 prioritized bus stop and shelter locations in the city of Rochester.

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December 27, 2022
Rochesterfirst.com

RTS and Center for Employment Opportunities partner for snow removal intiative

Mayor Evans announced a snow removal partnership between Regional Transit Service (RTS) and the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO).

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October 16, 2022
Minority Reporter

More Than 3,000 Residents in Workforce Development Services Engaged Through Community Partnerships

The City of Rochester has selected nine partners in the local human-services sector to engage more than 3,000 residents in workforce development programming.

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October 3, 2022
City and State NY

City & State 2022 Nonprofit Power 100

Nonprofit organizations play an invaluable and yet overlooked role in New York. These organizations, with rare exceptions, are led by idealistic executives who toil day after day to make New York a better place.

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September 30, 2022
City of Rochester

Mayor Evans Announces Partnerships for Workforce Development Services

Mayor Malik D. Evans announced today that the City has selected nine partners in the local human-services sector to engage more than 3,000 residents in workforce development programming.

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September 14, 2022
Spectrum News 1

Capital Region career fair helps formerly incarcerated individuals get on track

The Capital Region ReEntry Resource and Empowerment Fair isn’t a typical career fair. It's a fair and second chance for those in the criminal justice system.

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August 3, 2022
NYN Media

Preventing reimprisonment of formerly incarcerated individuals starts with higher-paying jobs

The city should work with unions and re-entry providers to create work opportunities that facilitate and track long-term success.

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July 7, 2022
The New York TImes

New York Times: For People Just Leaving Prison, a Novel Kind of Support: Cash

Joining a raft of initiatives aimed at helping the formerly incarcerated, a program gives money to defray expenses they face, including court fines and rent.

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April 14, 2022
Derick Bowers (via The Lurie Daniel Favors Show on SiriusXM)

CEO's Derick Bowers on the Lurie Daniel Favors Show

The Center for Employment Opportunities' Director of Social Enterprise Derick Bowers joins activist, attorney, and author Lurie Daniel Favors on SiriusXM to discuss the Returning Citizens Stimulus.

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February 23, 2022
Roland Martin Unfiltered

How the Returning Citizen Stimulus and CEO Help the Formerly Incarcerated

CEO's Director of Social Enterprise Derick Bowers appeared on Roland Martin Unfiltered to discuss the Returning Citizen Stimulus and CEO's program model. (Clip begins at 1:21:43)

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January 21, 2022
Christopher Watler (via HR.com)

Employers Must Rethink How They Treat Talent With Criminal Record

Imagine what it is like to look for work with a past felony conviction. Every time you are applying for a job, the burden of your conviction weighs on you.

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September 29, 2021
MDRC

Innovative Cash Transfer Program Helped 10,000 Former Prisoners Meet Essential Expenses During Pandemic, Improving Their Feelings of Financial Stability

Nonprofit research organization MDRC released a new study today showing that the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) successfully implemented an ambitious cash transfer program, the Returning Citizens Stimulus, during the pandemic.

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July 8, 2021
Yamirca Vazquez on Gotham Gazette

Opinion: Key Fixes for New York’s Broken Parole System Await the Governor’s Signature

It wasn’t the eight months of military-style, intense shock incarceration that finally broke me; it was my parole officer. After my incarceration at Lakeview Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility for non-violent offenders in Brocton, New York, I quickly realized I was living in constant fear of reincarceration. My parole officer had issued strict conditions such as travel limitations and unreasonable curfews, which prevented me from getting to work on time. There were incessant home visits, often at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning. I was convinced my parole officer was scrutinizing my every move, just waiting for a reason to issue a technical parole violation.

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June 21, 2021
Bloomberg

To Boost Hiring, New York Makes Case for a ‘Clean Slate’

For many Americans, criminal records stand as stubborn barriers to employment and housing. Several states are now advancing efforts to automatically seal and expunge those records.

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April 29, 2021
Crains New York Business

Google Partners with Nonprofits on Skills Training for Formerly Incarcerated People

Google will join New York-based groups The Ladies of Hope Ministries, Center for Employment Opportunities, Defy Ventures and The Fortune Society to help improve job prospects for people with criminal records, a group that's unemployed at 5x the national average.

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January 7, 2021
BronxNet

BronxNet Discusses CEO's Program for the Formerly Incarcerated

OPEN Host Daren Jaime sits with the Communications Manager at the Center for Employment Opportunities, Jovanni Ortiz discussing how the program is providing employment services for recently incarcerated individuals.

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August 27, 2020
WROC

Putting Rochester First: Center for Employment Opportunities

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — News 8 is continuing a two month initiative with the United Way called Putting Rochester First where we put the spotlight on local organizations that need your help. Jessica Centeno from the Center of Employment Opportunities came into the studio to discuss how their organization is helping folks during the pandemic, and what you can do to help.

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February 19, 2020
FOX Rochester

United Way Wednesday: Center for Employment Opportunities

This week’s United Way Wednesday highlights the Center for Employment Opportunities in Rochester. Sarah Fletcher, site director, joined us to explain how the United Way is working with the center to provide people with tools needed to build a successful career and maintain financial stability.

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February 18, 2020
WBAI

The Positive Mind Radio Show Interview on Mental Health

The Positive Mind Show on 99.5FM in New York City spoke with Christopher Watler, CEO’s Chief External Affairs Officer and Alexandra Poolt, CEO’s Manager of Supportive Services regarding the organization's mental health initiatives.

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October 30, 2019
Bronxnet

CEO's Sr. Director Cynthia Brackett of Vocational Services on BronxNet Talks Bronx Open House & More

Senior Director Cynthia Brackett of Vocational Services for Center for Employment Opportunities (C.E.O.), joins Host Doctor Bob Lee on BronxNet for a look at their Bronx location, their work to provide employment, and their upcoming Bronx ribbon cutting.

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June 28, 2019

Rochester's New Office Open House a Success!

CEO Rochester hosted a successful new office opening event on June 27, 2019 to formally introduce the new space to the community! It was a packed event with guest speakers that included The Monroe County District Attorney, Sandra Doorley, Monroe County Public Defender Director, Tim Donaher, City Councilmember Willie Lightfoot, and former participant, Aaron Daniels. All of whom serve on the CEO Rochester Advisory Board. You can watch Site Director, Sarah Fletcher's interview with WHAM 13 in the link.

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June 27, 2025

Isidoro Rodriguez

From Concrete Foundations to Career Goals: Leon’s Union Apprenticeship Story

Leon is wholeheartedly committed to building a career in construction. Despite the rigorous demands he faces daily on the job, he continues to push forward. As a newly accepted and paid apprentice with the Buffalo Local 210 Labor Union, Leon trains under the guidance of an experienced journeyman, learning the complexities of both physical and technical labor in real time.

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March 12, 2025

Ryan M. Moser

Beyond the Gate: How Chris is Changing the Conversation on Reentry

The difference between a successful reentry after incarceration and a failed one often lies in the smallest of details: no money for the bus; can’t get work boots; lost birth certificate. These problems are big obstacles for returning citizens that often have no support system, and can be a catalyst for defeat.

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February 14, 2025

Ryan M. Moser

Starting With Nothing Is a Setup to Fail

Millions of Americans have entered a correctional facility only to leave months or years later with no money for food, clothes, or shelter. When Maria left Rikers Island seven years ago, she had nothing but the examples her grandma had given her growing up in gentrifying Brooklyn: be determined, put your family first, and survive anything.

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February 4, 2025

Black History Month Business Spotlight: Raymond

Meet Raymond, the determined founder of Safety Above All LLC, a company dedicated to ensuring workplace safety in the construction industry. Starting his journey during a challenging 22-year prison term, Raymond envisioned a future where he could make a significant impact. Upon release, his first steps were facilitated by the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) in New York City, which helped him navigate the drastically changed world and acquire certifications.

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January 17, 2025

Ryan M. Moser

How Reentry Cash Changed Shamar’s Path

Shamar was raised by good women—from his great-grandma, the family matriarch, to his own mother—and he knows how important it is to respect and honor the women in his life.

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October 9, 2024

Ryan M. Moser

Prince Shares Why Justice-Impacted Americans Must Vote

Feeling guilty and even a little ashamed, Prince showed his identification to the election poll worker, realizing this was his first time voting after leaving incarceration. Although he had voted previously in other elections, this one felt different.

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March 31, 2024

Ryan M. Moser

A Background Check Doesn’t Show Who You Are Today

Dion's journey post-incarceration was met with barriers. Despite securing employment, he faced unjust termination. However, with access to CEO's impactful programs, he found a path to a fulfilling career in healthcare.

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September 18, 2023

Emily Montgomery

A New Chapter: Sha-Ken's Advocacy Leads to Landmark Legislation

Sha-Ken recently realized a dream he never imagined was possible: he helped pass New York state legislation that will positively impact people with past justice-involvement like his.

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January 19, 2021

#MLKDay Series 2021: Ayanna Teesdale

"With the challenges and controversies that we are currently facing in society, Martin Luther King Jr. Day allows us to pause and honor one of America's greatest leaders. We are reminded on this day of all the risks, sacrifices, and consequences he faced to inspire us to stand for social justice and equality for all. Dr. King also showed us that making a difference is a team effort. He didn’t just give speeches, he asked people to join him in peaceful demonstrations and service to others. His words and actions help to inspire those struggling for social progress and opened the doors of opportunity for all people. He called us to get involved in something bigger than ourselves."

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