Former New Challenge winners receive $5K in grants from Manhattan DA
The Manhattan district attorney’s office has a sweet deal for businesses putting at-risk youth. Three nonprofits that aim to create jobs for people from poor neighborhoods and those who have been in jail won $7.1 million in grants from the office’s Criminal Justice Investment Initiative, DA Cyrus Vance Jr. announced Monday.
The organizations include Drive Change, a former New Challenge Winner from The New School, doing a Bed-Stuy-based food truck that offers fellowships to formerly incarcerated youth; the East Village’s Sweet Generation Bakery, which teaches artisan baking techniques and job skills to at-risk youth; and the Downtown Brooklyn-based HOPE Program, which trains young adults on how to install solar panels and other green technologies.
“Poverty and unemployment are criminal justice issues, and we need as prosecutors … to keep people employed, moving forward with their lives and out of the criminal justice system,” Vance said at a news conference Monday.
The money will help the groups expand to serve more people, letting them build new facilities and grow their training programs, their leaders said. The grants come from the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative, a $250 million pot of money Vance’s office seized from white-collar criminals and uses to fund various projects.
Link to the article: NYC Business Serving Social Justice