Emily Stover DeRocco Speech
Leadership Conference on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
Washington, DC
March 1, 2005
Thank you, Catharine. It is a real honor to be here today.
As the Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training, I oversee the public workforce investment system. This is a $15 billion system charged with providing employment and job training services to workers and finding skilled employees for the nation’s businesses.
This system has over 3500 offices nationwide that go by many different names including One-Stop Centers, Job Centers, and CareerLinks. These offices are designed to bring a host of employment and training activities together under a single roof, preparing workers for the jobs of the 21st century economy.
Traditionally, this system has had little connection with faith-based organizations, instead relying on government workers, and private sector vendors to deliver services. We have been moving to change that however, and develop relationships between the public workforce system and faith-based organizations that are beneficial both to us and to the workers and employers that we serve.
Today, I would like to focus on a specific population and initiative that has allowed us to bridge that gap. That population is prisoners returning to society.
The Prisoner Reentry Initiative (PRI) was announced in the 2004 State of the Union address by President Bush. The PRI is designed strengthen urban communities through an employment-centered program that incorporates housing, mentoring, job training, and other comprehensive transitional services. This four-year program seeks to reduce recidivism by helping reentering, non-violent prisoners find work and stable housing when they return to their communities, as part of an effort to build a better life in the community for everyone. We want to serve communities heavily impacted by reentry.
The need for a program such as this is clear. Every year, around 650,000 individuals complete their prison time and are released back into communities. These individuals face multiple hurdles to successfully reintegrating into society including poor academic and occupational skills, substance abuse problems, and the stigma of having served time.
As a result, nearly two-thirds of all persons released from prison are rearrested within three years of release. This level of recidivism creates a permanent criminal underclass, with damaging effects to their children, communities, and society at-large.
In order to successfully reintegrate into the community, it is essential that ex-offenders possess the skills and support necessary to enter and compete in the workforce. We understand that to pursue job training and employment opportunities, ex-offenders need an array of support. The PRI is designed to draw on the unique strengths of faith-based and community-based organizations (FBCOs) and to rely on them as a primary partner for social services needed by ex-prisoners by providing a direct link into the communities to which they are returning.
- We know FBCO organizations are rooted in the community and have a special interest in the success of their efforts. So we are now ready to move forward.
- Congress has approved $30 million for the PRI in our 2005 Appropriations ($20 million for the Department of Labor and $10 for the Department of Justice). The President’s 2006 budget requests $75 million for PRI ($35 million from the Department of Labor, 25 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and $15 million from the Department of Justice).
- We hope to have a strong housing component when Congress provides the funding. It is important that Congress approve the full amount of the President’s request.
While this is a generous amount of money, we know it is just the seed money, certainly not enough to begin this important initiative. The cornerstone of a successful program must be partnerships that can leverage funds, and services from multiple sources.
We will begin to seek these partnerships this spring and summer. Over the four-year life of the Initiative, we hope to serve 50 communities and 50,000 ex-offenders.
We plan to publish the SGA in the Federal Register this spring and make awards this summer. After the SGA is published it is also our intent to hold public informational meetings for perspective applicants to learn more about the initiative and what information and level of quality is expected in a good application.
At the Department of Labor, we are committee to expanding our partnerships and work with FBCOs.
Since 2001, under Secretary Chao’s leadership, we have invested more than $100 million to create new collaborations between faith-based and community organizations and the workforce system, and another $100 million overseas for projects in which faith-based and community groups spread hope among populations struggling with HIV/AIDS, human trafficking and exploitive child labor practices.
There is much work to be done. The President’s PRI will be another important opportunity we share to strengthen America’s communities and America’s future.
