WASHINGTON - U.S. Representatives Edolphus “Ed” Towns (NY-10) and Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-14) today announced that the Department of Justice awarded a $350,000 grant to The Doe Fund, Inc.’s widely recognized flagship program, “Ready, Willing, and Able” (RWA).  The grant was authorized in the FY 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act and allocated through the Department of Justice (DOJ) to help support hourly incentive wages paid to RWA program participants.     
 
Established nearly twenty years ago in New York City, the RWA program provides job training, temporary housing, transitional employment and other social services to people recently released from incarceration.  According to The Doe Fund, only 4.8% of RWA graduates are re-arrested within one year of their release.  
 
Congressman Towns and Congresswoman Maloney have strongly supported RWA’s services to help those people recently released from incarceration take steps toward a fresh start. Currently, 800 men and women in New York City are enrolled in RWA and work temporary jobs such as street cleaning and repairing apartments.    

“For more than fifteen years, the ‘Ready, Willing and Able’ Program has significantly improved the lives of thousands of New York City residents,” said Rep. Towns. “This grant will help provide much needed support to services for those looking for a new start and a way to turn their lives around.”

“This funding will help The Doe Fund ensure that the economic recovery ‘lifts all boats’ and does not leave behind the most vulnerable in our society,” said George T. McDonald, Founder and President of The Doe Fund.  “Through their hard work cleaning New York City's streets, the formerly homeless and formerly incarcerated “men in blue” are building better futures for themselves and their children.”

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