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Dear John xxxxxx,
As we count down the final days of 2019 and gear up for a successful New Year (and decade!), I wanted to share this new video with you and to give you a quick ARC Year in Review.
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Photo credit: Catalyst, Stand Together Foundation
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With your help, in 2019 ARC exceeded many of our wildest dreams:
- We secured our first federal grant, from the Department of Labor, for our Pre-Apprenticeship program, which graduated its 8th cohort. Since its inception in 2016, 194 men and women have graduated the program, and nearly 80% of them were placed in union apprenticeship jobs.
- Our Hope & Redemption Team (HART) opened its 9th program inside remote Pelican Bay State Prison, where next month 260 men will have completed the work necessary to graduate the program. In total, there were 4,263 HART graduates throughout California this year.
- Our Peer Mentorship Program, which operates in three juvenile detention facilities in Los Angeles County, served more than 250 youth this year.
- Ventura Training Center, which we run in partnership with CAL FIRE, California Conservation Corps, and the CA Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, graduated its second and third class of 23 cadets.
- ARC conducted more than 20 policy advocacy trainings, did 8 legislative visits, and co-sponsored 7 bills.
- Our Magnolia (Koreatown) and Bromont (Sylmar) programs provided transitional supportive housing for a total of 71 residents.
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Ventura Training Center cadets at work
Photo credit: Kabir Cardenas
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Besides empowering formerly incarcerated men and women to pursue careers in firefighting and union jobs, we have helped ARC members gain meaningful careers working on major films in the entertainment industry. In addition, we have helped ARC members navigate secondary education opportunities, with members recently graduating from USC, UCLA, Loyola, Moorehouse, Cal State LA, and LB.
Today, ARC members are leading national organizations and are even running their own companies! We are changing the narrative, and in 2020 all of us at recommit to being of service to each other and to our community.
I encourage you to feel gratified to have played a role in all of our work, which we could not have achieved without your support, advocacy, and partnership.
And to help ARC begin 2020 stronger than ever, please consider making as generous a gift as you can. Today is the final opportunity to make your gift have twice the impact, as it will be matched dollar for dollar. Please take advantage of this match by supporting ARC’s vital work today.
Happy New Year,
Sam Lewis
Executive Director
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