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Reentry Resource Center - New York

Serving People from Arrest to Reintegration

Leaving the Street: Young Fathers Move from Hustling to Legitimate Work (Public/Private Ventures)

  • Organization: Public/Private Ventures
  • Author: Lauren J. Kotloff
  • Document Type: Report
  • Date Created: Tuesday, February 01, 2005
  • Submitted: Tuesday, October 04, 2005
  • Attachment(s): PDF

Given the obstacles these men are facing and the growing mandate that they provide financial support to their children, what approaches can programs take that will increase the likelihood that the men will find jobs and remain in the formal labor market? This report draws on the experiences of the 27 men in our study to begin answering that question. The next two chapters explore their experiences before they enrolled in Fathers at Work—Chapter II describes why they became involved in hustling and why they want to get out, while Chapter III examines their experiences with legitimate work, how they moved between hustling and work, and their motiva­tions for doing so. Chapter IV then looks at how the men responded to the program’s attempts to help them make the transition to a more legitimate lifestyle that included full-time work in the formal labor market, and how well they were succeeding a year after enrollment. Chapter V identifies challenges the men face after they leave the program, and a final chapter offers rec­ommendations for practitioners, drawn from lessons learned from this study.

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