MOED receives Weinberg Foundation grant to 
increase services to ex-offenders
Funding will increase ex-offenders’ labor participation and improve job retention

Baltimore, MD - The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Inc. has awarded Baltimore City’s Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (MOED) a $1 million grant to increase its services to ex-offenders. The grant will help support operations through June 30, 2009 at MOED’s Re-entry Center @ the Northwest One-Stop Career Center, located at the Mondawmin Mall.

Commenting on the grant to support MOED, Trustee and Vice President Donn Weinberg remarked, “The Re-entry Center’s success relies on an extensive preexisting network of city agencies and state institutions, the nonprofit community, and federal Workforce Investment Act partners, all of whom contribute services and resources to promote ex-offender transition and employment. The Weinberg Foundation Trustees are proud that we are able to support this critically important effort.” 

These funds – to be provided in two yearly $500,000 awards – will be used to increase ex-offenders’ labor participation, improve job retention, and continue to assist moving this population out of poverty and into viable and sustainable employment. The second year’s grant is contingent upon MOED’s demonstration that other funding is in place to continue the Re-entry Center’s operations. The center has provided services to over 8,500 ex-offenders since it opened in July 2005.

“Baltimore City appreciates its strong partnership with the Weinberg Foundation that has resulted in this support for our Re-entry Center,” said Sheila Dixon, Mayor, Baltimore City. “All citizens benefit when we create a path to employment and job retention for ex-offenders. It helps to alleviate public safety concerns, expands Baltimore’s tax base, and directly assists individuals who want to get their lives back on track.”     

Approximately 10,000 ex-offenders are released to Baltimore City each year. Many are in need of basic services that need to be addressed in order to make sustainable employment a reality. The Re-entry Center’s success is largely due to forging strong relationships with organizations that provide these essential services, such as transitional housing, substance abuse treatment, and personal identification retrieval, so that the ex-offenders are more likely be successful in their employment ventures. In addition, the center’s strong relationships with employers and thorough work readiness training have resulted in nearly 1,000 ex-offenders being placed in jobs during the center’s first two years of operation.

“We are pleased with how the Re-entry Center has been able to leverage resources, build effective partnerships, and improve our customers’ work skills so that they can get a job and keep a job,” said MOED Director Karen Sitnick. “We are grateful that the Weinberg Foundation recognizes that we are making a difference for Baltimore City. Their investment will assist us in continuing to increase our services for the ex-offender population and connect them with employers who will benefit from these additions to their workforce.”