Hello Friends, Allies, and Supporters!
The CROP Organization is proud to present our inaugural newsletter.
We are excited to share our incredible journey this year which includes policy wins, historic partnerships with the State of California, Google, Oracle and others, and the launch of our Ready for Life pilot program.
You may know about CROP from the 2020 CNN documentary (featuring our Director of Programs, Jason Bryant), our signature Ready for Life reentry program, or perhaps our podcast The Prison Post. Regardless of how you’ve been introduced to CROP, we welcome you to join us in our movement to transform lives and heal communities.
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The State of CA Awards CROP $28.5M to Pilot a
Tech-Focused Workforce & Housing Program
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This July, CROP was awarded a historic $28.5M in grants to develop the Ready for Life program. This holistic reentry program will be the first housing-based, tech-centered workforce training facility for formerly incarcerated people in the state’s history. The funding, which prioritizes a live-in housing model, will enable CROP to open a career development campus in the Bay Area and a satellite facility in Los Angeles.
This partnership with the state would not be possible without the support of our incredible national, state and local partners:
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CROP Team is Ready to Reimagine Reentry |
We are honored to take on this monumental opportunity with the state and our workforce partners to reimagine reentry.
CROP's leadership team has been designing and implementing workforce and coaching programs for over ten years. In 2008, we founded CROP with a goal to transform CTF Soledad's prison culture from antisocial to collaborative. To do that, we received training in personal leadership development and became master coaches. We equip people to break from a follower, "go along, to get along" mentality to one that emphasizes accountability, personal agency and giving back to the community.
Over the last decade, we delivered training to 1,000+ incarcerated men and expanded our program to the wider community to include 350+ faculty and students at a local community college. Our Leadership for Life program is now the foundation of our Ready for Life reentry program. We are thrilled to continue this transformational work with returning community members.
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CROP Launches Ready for Life Pilot in May |
We are so proud of the dedication and commitment of our inaugural cohort! |
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Facilitated by CROP's Director of Programs, Jason Bryant, the 6-month Ready for Life cohort is preparing 13 individuals for jobs in the tech sector. The class meets 5 nights a week and starts with a foundation of personal leadership development, digital literacy training, and financial education. Associates are now receiving hard skills training in tech-sales with CROP's partners Checkr, ClimbHire and Code Tenderloin. Two associates have already been offered full-time employment. Read more about our plans for Ready for Life here.
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With coaching and support from the CROP team and their cohort peers,
each associate has embarked on a journey to start their own career in the tech sector.
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Governor Newson Signs AB 628
Workforce Legislation Co-Sponsored by CROP
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CROP believes that systems change requires strong policy advocacy, education and narrative change. We engage policymakers to reform the laws that create barriers to successful reentry. We also advocate for re-allocating state resources into programs that serve People over Punishment.
AB 628 provides guidance to the State Workforce Board on the Breaking Barriers to Employment grant program. This $30M program invests in nonprofits that provide workforce programming. AB 628 explicitly focuses on equity for the grant program and includes new funding for employer education and Know Your Rights Training, among other reforms. CROP was proud to co-sponsor AB 628 with PolicyLink, CIPC, and CWA.
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CROP's Prison Post Podcast nears 27K views on YouTube! |
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The Prison Post is hosted and edited by Richard Mireles, CROP’s Director of Communications. Richard has interviewed hundreds of people on the inside, people who have returned home, and allies who are committed to social change. 10,000 downloads later, Prison Post has been shared widely across social media and in CDCR!
Prison Post sparks a conversation about the purpose of prison in America. CROP's goal is to transform mindsets about the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated by sharing their stories about transformation.
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Connect with us on social media! |
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Join us to Transform Lives.
Donate Online or Text "CROP" to 91999.
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