Center for Employment Opportunities, Inc. (CEO)

Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) Charlotte is dedicated to providing immediate, effective, and comprehensive employment services exclusively to individuals who have recently returned home from incarceration. Our programs help participants regain the skills and confidence needed for successful transitions to stable, productive lives.

CEO’s evidence-based program model consists of employment-focused activities specifically designed to enable justice-impacted individuals to successfully enter the labor market: workforce readiness training; transitional employment with daily pay; job coaching; job development services (leading to permanent job placement); advanced training and credentialing; and a year of employment retention support. Through this model, CEO provides a road map for participants to achieve the long-term goal of remaining attached to the workforce and maintaining their freedom. Additionally, participants move through the program model at their own pace in acknowledgment of their differing levels of skills and experience.

Our services combat issues including unemployment, restrictive hiring practices, lack of employment opportunity, poverty, and recidivism. An estimated 12,000 people are released from NC prisons annually, and approximately 1,800 will return home to Charlotte. Without an income to establish stability, many justice-impacted individuals face high rates of poverty which too often leads to reincarceration. A Mecklenburg County report indicates that 47% of those who return from prison are reincarcerated within two years. CEO’s services are critical to helping returning citizens earn daily wages while they develop skills that will help ensure long-term employment with socio-economic growth.