In our Transitional Jobs program, participants get a fresh start on employment, a model that's increasingly being replicated around the country.

Last summer, Timothy was back on the West Side of Chicago. On parole after eight and a half years in prison, he wasn't having much luck securing a job. Today, he's the supervisor of janitorial services at Little Black Pearl Workshop, a nonprofit that offers art programs for youth. He's helping pay the bills in the apartment he shares with his girlfriend, and he's back in the life of his 18-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son.

The key opportunity that opened up Timothy's new life was enrolling in Heartland Alliance's Transitional Jobs (TJ) program, which combines meaningful work experience with courses on everything from resume writing to job-search assistance. "Everybody in my class was on parole, and everybody wanted to change their life around," he says.

Timothy spent eight weeks last fall in a transitional job at Little Black Pearl, and they were so impressed that they hired him fulltime. Most of the other dozen TJ participants that have worked at the nonprofit have found jobs elsewhere after working on the team. When they graduate from TJ, participants have shown themselves and the world that they can be a dependable and valuable employee, they have new experience and another reference on their resume.

The ex-offender program is one of eight Transitional Jobs programs run by Heartland Alliance, each serving a population that isn't easily served by traditional workforce programs, such as adults with very low literacy skills. More than 500 individuals enrolled in a Heartland Alliance TJ program in 2008, twice as many as just two years ago. Heartland Alliance also staffs and leads the National Transitional Jobs Network, a coalition of 4,000 providers around the country that pushed for dedicated funding for TJ in President Barack Obama's budget earlier this year.