Project Return

Job readiness program and wraparound services: every week, Project Return conducts a 2.5-day course that equips our participants with the soft skills needed to be successful in the workplace. For people being released from prison and returning to the community, this program provides skills, individualized support, and oportunities to find and keep a job. Our curriculum incorporates financial literacy, relapse prevention, and digital literacy. Completion of our job readiness classes leads to a structured day of individualized assistance, including resume development, mock interviewing, and job search planning. During class completion day, Project Return staff evaluates and address participants' immediate, critical needs, providing wraparound supportive services such as: purchasing birth certificates and photo ids; housing assistance in the form of referrals and stipends; paying for medical, dental, and vision exams; bus passes and food bags; and tools and clothing for work. Additional programs at Project Return include child support services, job retention services, hard skills training courses, and an entrepreneurship program.

Pro employment (proe) and pro property solutions (props): despite increasing awareness and willingness of employers to hire people with conviction histories, there is still tremendous reluctance to hire people immediately after their release from incarceration. Project Return offers innovative, employment-creating social enterprises as a solution. Proe (Project Return opportunities for employment), launched in 2013, functions as a transitional jobs program that bridges the gap between incarceration and employment. Through proe, Project Return hires eligible participants temporarily and places them in jobs on the worksites of partnering employers. Those companies gain much-needed workers, while Project Return's motivated job seekers gain an immediate income and valuable work experience, propelling them into long-term employment. Project Return outfits them for the job, and provides transitional employees with job coaching, training, transportation, and wraparound support. Proe's success and our desire to expand on our immediate employment opportunities for participants led to the creation of another social enterprise, pro property solutions (props). Launched in january 2019, props is a property maintenance company that offers groundskeeping and commercial cleaning services, as well as facility maintenance and make-ready services, and property deconstruction. With this enterprise, we create more employment and hard skills opportunities for our people, all the while generating earned income to support our overall agency budget. Through props and proe, our participants gain real-world work experience on the job, as well as our individualized coaching and feedback, transportation, and other critical assistance, and Project Return generates earned income for the operation and growth of these employment-creating social enterprises. Between proe and props, we've employed over 2,500 people immediately after prison.

Pro housing: the typical housing trajectory we see for our people is that they are fortunate to reside in temporary housing for the first few months of their release, but it eventually comes to an end and they must look for affordable rental opportunities. Despite the fact that these individuals earn satisfactory wages and are reliable taxpayers in our community, stigma often leads to exclusion from the private market, as landlords are free to use conviction history as a basis for rejecting their applications. It can be practically impossible for them to get on a lease, despite their steady income, solid references, careful financial management, and overall wherewithal. Additionally, research shows that those who have been to prison just once experience homelessness at a rate 7 times higher than the general public, while those who have been incarcerated multiple times experience homelessness at a rate 13 times higher than those who haven't been incarcerated at all. Recognizing this severe need for accessible affordable rental housing for people with a conviction history, and following the success of proe Project Return launched its second social enterprise, proh (Project Return opportunities for housing), in 2017. Through proh, Project Return acquires and rehabs modest, scattered-site (anti-enclave), multi-family properties, which are available to rent for those who have come through Project Return's programs. Since launch in 2017, Project Return has purchased and rehabbed 32 units (duplexes and triplexes) in sites scattered across nashville for rent to people who are leading successful new lives after incarceration. Speaking to the success of proh, recidivism rates of our proh tenants is 3% after six years of operation. By providing safe, stable, permanent housing, individuals can lead productive, successful lives and leave prison behind.

In september of 2022, Project Return completed the purchase of its headquarters office at 109 lafayette street in nashville. The property was renovated in 2020, with Project Return staff moving to the location in 2021. The property was leased until the final purchase was completed in 2022.