Pre-Rap Sheet Day on August 8, 2018

Sealing, expungement, legal options info session. Seeking returning citizens to prepare to "get cleared or assist with options.

Where: Teamwork Englewood Offices (Inside US Bank Building)
             815 W. 63rd Street, 2nd floor
When: August 8, 2018 from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM

Register via e-mail at omonroe @ themonroefoundation.org

With questions call Otis Moore at 773.315.9720

Visit the website at http://www.getclearedtoday.org

TODAY: 2nd chance adult & juvenile expungement summit

Also a job info rmation seminar for ex-offenders to take place at Kennedy-King College 6343 S. Halsted in building W on Saturday June 2, 2018. Registration at 8:30 PM doors close at 6:00 PM. Also this applies to non-federal crimes committed in the state of Illinois. For more info call 312.603.5200 or 4641. Also visit the webpage of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County at www.cookcountyclerkofcourt.org

Here's an ig post from Kennedy-King College

Honorable Dorothy Brown, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County and an array of judicial, governmental, legal, educational, community and religious organizations and agencies, present the 14th Annual Second Chance Adult and Juvenile Expungement Summit and Job Information Seminar at Kennedy- King College, 6343 S. Halsted St., Building W, Chicago.

A post shared by Kennedy King (@kennedyking6301) on May 15, 2018 at 10:41am PDT

Re-entry education summit at Olive-Harvey College

Thursday, March 16, 2017
11:00 AM to 2:00 PM

Olive-Harvey College
10001 S. Woodlawn Ave
Chicago, IL

Refer to flyer below for more details on this event.

Tribune: CTA to restart jobs program for ex-offenders

Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune / December 19, 2013

 This is certainly great news:

An entry-level CTA jobs program designed to offer a second chance to hard-to-employ individuals is itself getting a second chance, officials announced today.

Reinstating the program, while providing employment for 65 people, might also help lead to cleaner CTA rail cars, which has been a challenge for the CTA this winter.

The CTA reached an agreement with its rail union, represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union, to reinstate the rail car servicer apprentice program, which employs ex-offenders, individuals completing drug-abuse programs, victims of domestic violence and others.

The program was scrapped at the end of 2013 in a dispute between CTA management and ATU Local 308. The rail union's president, Robert Kelly, said he was protecting union jobs by dissolving the apprentice program. He said the CTA was cutting back on jobs that pay full wages and benefits and hiring people in lower-paying positions. The CTA rejected Kelly's contention.

Reinstatement of the rail car servicer program, combined with 200 bus servicer apprenticeships introduced last year, expands the CTA’s apprentice program to 265 total positions, officials said.

TRIBUNE: CTA to keep employing imperiled rail car cleaners

It appears there is a plan for those ex-con CTA workers who are cleaning L cars at the various terminals on the CTA although now they will be transferred to cleaning CTA buses:

After weeks of public disagreement between Chicago Transit Authority officials and union leaders over a program that has given felons jobs cleaning rail cars, a transit agency spokesman said Wednesday night that workers from the program would be transferred into jobs cleaning buses.

CTA spokesman Brian Steele said he couldn't give details, citing an announcement planned for Thursday morning, but he confirmed that workers from the rail car servicer apprenticeship program would be moved into a CTA bus-cleaning program. Steele said he could not say how many workers would be transferred.

Steele's confirmation followed a news release announcing the plan from Robert Kelly, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 308, which represents rail workers.

Definitely good news for many of those workers who were concerned about whether or not they'd remain employed.

WTTW: CTA's Ex-Offenders Program Ending

[VIDEO] WTTW did a story about the ex-offenders apprentice program that the CTA plans to close at the end of theyear. We've written about this a number of times during the course of this month. According to this story we also learned that there is a similar program for CTA buses that will remain in effect at least through 2015.

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Tribune: CTA train-cleaning schedule will be dialed back

Photo by artistmac/flickr

The Tribune's John Hilkevitch writes about one side effect of shutting down the ex-offender program as was announced recently:

The quick spot-cleaning that CTA rail cars receive when trains pull into terminals in the mornings and afternoons will be eliminated at the end of the year, the transit agency and its rail workers union said Monday.

The CTA has not budgeted for new positions to replace ex-offenders whom the CTA has employed as part-time apprentices since 2007 to clean rail cars and buses, said Robert Kelly, president of Local 308 of the Amalgamated Transit Union. The ex-offenders program will end Dec. 31, the CTA and the union said last week.

The union said trains will be cleaned only on the midnight shifts starting at the first of the year, because the CTA said it is eliminating all morning and midafternoon jobs for car-servicer positions.

“This could become a serious health matter for the public,’’ Kelly said.

CTA spokesman Brian Steele confirmed that effective Jan. 1, all current daytime crews will instead be assigned to work overnight hours to replace the apprentices, who work exclusively at night.

Well what this means is we won't see spot-cleaning in the mornings and afternoons that we would see if we were waiting for a train from 95th Street for example.

Tribune: CTA hiring program for ex-offenders to end

You might have seen this on the Concerned Citizens of Chatham FB page recently, this program is expected to go away at the end of the year:

A program that helps ex-offenders gain work experience cleaning rail cars and buses for the Chicago Transit Authority will end Dec. 31, according to the Amalgamated Transit Union and the CTA.

The program that began in November 2007 has been in peril for several years. In 2011, it almost wasn't extended and became a bargaining chip between the union and the transit authority. And by December 2012, when the 2013 contract was finalized, no additional extension had been agreed to, dooming the program after this year.

The 65 current participants will not be allowed to finish their nine-month apprenticeships, according to CTA spokesman Steve Mayberry. He said the 65 positions are in addition to the necessary number of service workers, costing the CTA $2.9 million annually. As part of the 2011 agreement to extend the program through 2013, the CTA hired back 24 rail service workers who had been laid off during the Great Recession.

Mayberry said that while the CTA has supported the program, union Local 308 president Robert Kelly has pushed to end it. The CTA pays ex-offenders $9.50 an hour for the car and bus servicer jobs, while union workers are paid between about $13 and $30 to do the same thing.

Kelly said he had "big problems" with the program — but he also said the CTA didn't ask for an extension to it in 2012.

"The CTA had every opportunity in contract talks last year to bring it up," Kelly said. "If this program saves the CTA money, is it my job to walk in and say (can I) save you ... more?" Kelly said. "If they would have brought it up, we would have dealt with it at the time."

ABC7: CTA ex-offender program offering apprenticeships

[VIDEO] This is news you should know about.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and CTA President Forrest Claypool were scheduled to kick off an expansion of the program that gives ex-offenders a second chance with rail and bus apprenticeships Wednesday.

Under the expanded program, bus apprenticeships will last up to a year while rail assignments will continue for nine months.

High-performing apprentices will be eligible to apply for full-time CTA positions.

As many as 200 bus positions will be included in the program along with 65 rail slots.

You can learn more about these positions via this CTA Press Release and this Q & A about the apprenticeship program. And of course our best wishes for success!