From release to a lasting career.
Five stages, a dozen organizations and one gap. This is how a returning citizen moves through Chicago's system, and where the work of staying employed actually happens.
Release & reentry
Chicago's Fair Chance Ordinance bars most private employers with five or more employees from asking about criminal history until after a conditional offer. The City's Office of Reentry points people toward jobs and training.
CTA has worked to extend conditional offers before a person is released from IDOC, so the first job can be waiting.
Who is here
- City of Chicago Office of Reentry
- Illinois Department of Corrections
- Illinois OSAD returning-citizen resources
What matters
- Records, IDs and expungement or sealing help
- A first conditional offer
Readiness
Intake, job-readiness workshops, resume and interview practice, and case management. This is the work Safer Foundation, Cara and Greencorps do well.
Greencorps adds a paid seven-to-nine-month cohort at $18.50 an hour. Safer Foundation connects candidates directly to record-friendly employers, bypassing online application systems.
Who is here
- Safer Foundation
- Cara Collective
- Greencorps Chicago
- Seven City delegate agencies
What they are measured on
- Placement
- 30-, 60- and 90-day retention
The offer
A conditional offer, a background review that does not automatically disqualify, and a first paid role.
Transit, hospitals, the City, manufacturers, grocers and hospitality all participate. The directory maps them by sector.
Who is here
- CTA Second Chance Program
- City of Chicago
- Advocate Health, Rush and other health systems
- Second Chance Business Coalition members
The first 90 days
The window every program is measured on, and the one nobody is paid to protect.
A 90-day cohort, two sessions a week, led or supervised by a licensed professional counselor. Mindfulness, cognitive restructuring and motivational interviewing, so that stress, reactivity and old patterns do not decide the outcome of a good job.
Inside the programWhat changes
- Self-awareness
- Vocabulary and expressive speech
- Reactivity
- Critical thinking
What is reported
- Aggregate, de-identified results
- Attendance, only with written consent
A lasting career
Permanent union positions, apprenticeships, advancement.
CTA reports more than 900 people hired permanently from its Second Chance Program, some rising to management. That is the outcome every earlier stage exists to produce.
What it looks like
- Apply for permanent roles during and after the program
- Registered apprenticeships and union trades