The US Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration funds 100%, or $900,000, of program costs for the Community Project Grant – Hilco/CEO.
Allegheny County – January 16, 2025 – Today, Senator Wayne Fontana announced a total of $8,636,483 in state funding from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) for agencies and organizations that serve the people of the 42nd District. These grants provide funding for structured programming opportunities for at-risk school-age youth and violence intervention and prevention initiatives.
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis hosted a roundtable conversation to tackle the issue, with local officials and community members commenting on the initiatives they’re taking to find solutions. “Some people think that this [gun violence] is just a Harrisburg issue, or a Philadelphia issue or a Pittsburgh issue,” Davis said. “I want to be clear that this is a Pennsylvania issue, and it is uniquely an American issue. But it’s an issue that we can and must do something about.”
Rasheed Abdus says when he got out of prison four years ago, at age 21, he struggled to find a job. “Maybe cause I didn’t know how to use a computer,” he said. A friend connected him to the Center for Employment Opportunities, a national work readiness organization with a Philadelphia chapter, and he started cleaning up parks in Kensington. Now, he’s learning to train other formerly incarcerated people.
Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon announced $1 million in new federal funding she recently secured to support a workforce training program for formerly incarcerated Philadelphians. It is one of 10 Community Project Funding awards, formerly known as earmarks, Scanlon delivered for her district through the Fiscal Year 2022 federal government funding package passed by Congress in March.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, Philadelphia officials said they are trying to expand one of their key gun violence prevention programs.
April 15, 2024
Quiana Brifu, Federal Policy Associate
In the bustling streets of Philadelphia's Germantown area, a remarkable partnership recently unfolded between the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) and Mayor Cherelle Parker.
November 15, 2023
Jason Kahler
Philadelphia Hilco Crew Site Supervisor Ella Saunders can’t help but sing Reggie’s praises. “Reggie serves as an inspiring example of personal growth and determination to positively impact society,” says Saunders.
August 26, 2022
Eric Borsuk
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.
April 4, 2022
Quiana Pugh
At CEO, we have a vision that each person returning home from incarceration will have access to a quality job and economic mobility. Even though more than 600,000 individuals return home from incarceration each year, they are largely unable to access our country’s public workforce system and the support needed to focus on employment training during reentry. This past winter, CEO invited federal lawmakers to 9 of our sites to hear directly from justice-impacted experts on needed changes to law to make employment training better.
December 11, 2018
Charles Brown began his prison sentence when he was 17. By the time he returned home to Philadelphia he was a 53 year old whose entire adult life had been shaped by the criminal justice system. All of Charles’ accomplishments — from earning his GED to enrolling in college classes to becoming a mentor — were inseparable from his incarceration.