CREATEPathways to Stability for Justice-involved Individuals
Chrysalis is the leading organization in LA focused on helping formerly incarcerated individuals attain self-sufficiency through employment. Each year, through supportive services and our social enterprise “Chrysalis Enterprises” (CE), we provide job readiness training and transitional jobs for over 3000 justice-involved people, offering them a second chance. LA2050 funds will support innovative technology upgrades that will make Chrysalis more efficient and effective in our efforts to help justice-involved clients find and retain employment.
In which areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?
County of Los Angeles
In what stage of innovation is this project?
Expand existing program
What is the need you’re responding to?
Chrysalis serves the most vulnerable in our community—those with the most barriers to employment. People who have criminal histories and past incarceration face big challenges finding and retaining jobs due to a lack of education, vocational skills, and/or work history, as well as employers’ reluctance to hire those who have been justice-involved. Also, the criminal justice system disproportionately impacts African Americans and other people of color, and thus, it is important to provide them with services and opportunities to thrive following incarceration. We offer job-readiness services, through social programs and paid, transitional jobs, that strengthen our clients’ employability and help them secure work. For clients with the most barriers to employment Chrysalis offers paid, transitional jobs with our in-house CE businesses to get them started on the road to permanent, outside jobs. Sixty percent (60%) of our clients are justice-involved and 47% have prior felony convictions.
Why is this project important to the work of your organization?
Chrysalis helps CREATE opportunities for formerly incarcerated people to reenter society, find work, and get on the path to self-sufficiency. We are leaders in the reentry community for the work that we do to create jobs, connect people to employment, and assist formerly incarcerated people to increase their incomes.
Our clients participate in our job-readiness program, including classes, case management and supplemental supports. Those with additional barriers can work in our CE transitional jobs program. Last year, we helped 910 justice-involved individuals find outside employment and employed 1265 in transitional jobs, so they can to rebuild their lives.
Chrysalis is an inclusive, data-driven, learning organization, committed to delivering highly effective programming. As Chrysalis transitions our data processes to Salesforce, enhanced applications supported by LA2050 will increase our capacity to effectively create economic opportunities for the formerly incarcerated.
Approximately how many people will be impacted by this proposal?
Direct Impact: 3,120
Indirect Impact: 150,000
Please describe the broader impact of your proposal.
Jobs help justice-involved people gain economic stability and reduce the likelihood that they return to prison, promoting greater public safety to the benefit of everyone. But people who have been to prison are often shut out of the labor market. Justice-involved people are some of the most vulnerable already. With the new economy emerging after the COVID-19 crisis, their struggles to find jobs will increase. We need to be better equipped to serve them, and to elevate our program model to help them in what promises to be a more challenging environment. As they become successfully employed, we can help dispel the stigma against giving them a second chance and ensure that they can actively participate in our community’s economic recovery.
Please explain how you will define and measure success for your project.
Chrysalis has a robust evaluation system. Our dashboard tracks short- and long-term outcomes, and our strategic plan includes a broader vision of success over time. We are now transitioning data collection and reporting to Salesforce. LA2050 funding will support important technology enhancements across Salesforce and related apps, resulting in transformative impacts to program effectiveness and efficiency, and more jobs for our justice-involved clients.
The enhancements will include processes to auto-generate resumes, job-matching applications, resource tracking, and communication tools. Staff will save time on data and spend more time with clients, clients will see improved service delivery, and managers will have real-time tools they need. We have a strong data-driven culture, and through this critical investment, we will leverage that culture to produce improvements in our programs now and as we scale for future growth.
During the grant term, Chrysalis will provide workforce development services for 3120 justice-involved individuals. Of those, 1000 will find outside employment and 1370 will work a transitional job. We will also develop and implement a Salesforce database that will increase efficiency and effectiveness in our programs, driving a 10% increase in the number of justice-involved clients finding employment.
To support LA2050’s dream metric, we will also track the employment rate among all of our formerly incarcerated clients throughout the grant term and beyond.
Which of the CREATE metrics will your submission impact?
Economic opportunities for formerly incarcerated
Which of LA2050’s resources will be of the most value to you?
Access to the LA2050 community
Host public events or gatherings
Communications support
Office space for meetings, events, or for staff
Capacity, including staff
Strategy assistance and implementation