Overview

An initiative of Jobs for the Future (JFF), the Center for Justice & Economic Advancement partners with employers, education and training providers, corrections agencies, and others to promote education, training, and fair chance hiring for people in corrections facilities and in communities. The Center works with state and federal policymakers to advocate for policy changes and share best practices so people with records can secure quality jobs.

JFF’s Normalizing Opportunity advocacy campaign supports a number of the organization’s initiatives aimed at raising awareness of the lifelong punishments faced by people with criminal records. JFF advocates for state and federal policy solutions that remove barriers and improve conditions for economic advancement of people with records, and for policies at educational institutions which ensure that people with records or who are incarcerated can access high-quality credentials.

The Fair Chance Corporate Cohort is a 12-week, virtual, employer training program focused on implementing and assessing employment practices and fair-chance hiring which expand opportunities for people with criminal records.

The Normalizing Education Resource Center Library provides tools and guides available for download. A field guide to create pathways to quality jobs for people who are currently incarcerated offers resources in six areas:

• Program Design and Administration
• Financial Aid
• Pell Grants
• Data Projects
• Release And Reentry
• Voices Of Opportunity

In April 2024, JFF was awarded $14.5 million, its second gift from the Justice and Mobility Fund, to continue and expand its work improving educational and employment opportunities for currently and formerly incarcerated peoples.

Also in April 2024, JFF’s Center for Justice & Economic Advancement launched the Normalizing Education Collective (The Collective), with support from Ascendium Education Group and the Ichigo Foundation. The Collective is a year-long community of practice intended to support postsecondary education providers in growing or expanding postsecondary education pathways in prisons. The Collective will utilize the tools and resources in JFF’s Normalizing Education Resource Center and the Resource Community for Higher Education in Prison (RCHEP). This work is a response to the reinstatement of Pell Grants for incarcerated learners in July 2023.

Background

People with records face persistent barriers to success in education and the workforce because of policies and practices that exclude them from quality jobs matching their skills and aspirations. This leaves 77 million people on the sidelines of the labor market.

Resources

Fair Chance Corporate Cohort

Normalizing Education Collective

Normalizing Education Resource Center

Normalizing Opportunity Advocacy Campaign

Resource Community for Higher Education in Prison (RCHEP)