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This Organization Is Changing Our Response To Homelessness And Recidivism. Here’s How You Can Help

Looking for ways to get involved and help people experiencing homelessness and incarceration in NYC? Join The Doe Fund in helping over 28,000 homeless and formerly incarcerated men rebuild their lives.

The Doe Fund
by The Doe Fund

Brand Publisher

Did you know that in New York City, about 24% of people who were incarcerated end up back in jail within a year?

Jail cell door
Marcia Straub / Getty Images

Newly released people often face barriers to things others take for granted like employment, housing, and access to basic necessities, leading them to reoffend and reenter the prison system.

New York City also has devastatingly high instances of homelessness, with the shelter system serving 50,000+ people per day on average.

Tim Trzoska / Getty Images/EyeEm

The causes of homelessness are as diverse as the population experiencing it. Most people experiencing homelessness are single adults who are ready, willing, and able to work. What they have been denied — and what The Doe Fund provides — is opportunity. 

Instead of enacting a punitive model to deal with what are really public health issues, what if we provided housing, job training, and alternatives to the criminal justice system?

Several Ready, Willing & Able participants doing a mock interview with a volunteer.
The Doe Fund

The Doe Fund, an NYC-based organization, is looking to do just that.

The Doe Fund focuses on paid work, transitional housing, and comprehensive social services like addiction treatment and career training.

Men in Blue working on street cleaning
The Doe Fund

Since 1990, The Doe Fund has implemented a three-legged stool approach, which combines paid work, transitional housing, and supportive services. Through their Ready, Willing & Able program, they provide participants with the tools to stabilize and recover. And it does work! Graduates of the program are 62% less likely to recidivate.

You can join them in helping change the lives of these men and their families. The Doe Fund offers an array of opportunities for community members to donate and volunteer.

The Doe Fund

Your donation can help change a life! Visit Ways to Give for donation opportunities. 

Volunteers can give the gift of time by signing up to facilitate mock interviews with program participants.

Doe fund participants participating in a mock interview with a volunteer
The Doe Fund

These mock interviews help give participants the tools they need to reenter the working world.

You can also join their Young Professionals Council.

A group of volunteers putting their hands in
Hill Street Studios / Getty Images

The Young Professionals Council helps support Ready, Willing & Able through philanthropic activities, raising the program’s public profile, engaging existing and securing new donors, and volunteering with the men The Doe Fund serves. 

New Yorkers are always Better Together so join The Doe Fund's graduation ceremony, in celebrating the men who have completed the program.

A graduate of Ready, Willing & Able hugging their daughter

Can't make it to the Apollo Theater on April 30? You can congratulate graduates with a simple email or help spread the word in your community.

The Doe Fund works to address the root causes of homelessness and recidivism. Join them in their mission to break these cycles that perpetuate intergenerational poverty.

Images via The Doe Fund unless otherwise specified.