U.S. Department of Labor

200 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20210

(202) 693-6450

E-mail: contact-cfbci@dol.gov

www.dol.gov/cfbci

Corporation for National and Community

Service

1201 New York Avenue, NW

Suite 800

Washington, DC 20525

(202) 606-5000 (phone)

(202) 565-2784 (fax)

www.cns.gov 

email: faithand community@cns.gov

Department of Commerce

1401 Constitution Avenue, NW

Suite 5517

Washington, DC 20230

(202) 482-4355 (phone)

(202) 482-4636 (fax)

www.commerce.gov/fbci 

email: jmay@doc.gov

Small Business Administration 

409 3rd Street, SW

Washington, DC 20416

(202) 205-9037 (phone)

(202) 481-0334 (fax)

www.sba.gov/fbci 

email: fbci@sba.gov

Department of Veteran Affairs

810 Vermont Avenue, NW Washington, DC

(202) 273-7499 (phone)

(202) 273-5716 (fax)

www.va.gov 

email: vafbci@va.gov

Department of Housing and Urban Development

451 7th Street SW, Room 10184 Washington, DC 20410

(202) 708-2404 (phone)

(202) 708-1160 (fax)

www.hud.gov/offices/fbci 

email: talk_to_us@hud.gov

Department of Education

555 New Jersey Avenue, NW,

Capital Place, Suite 410 Washington, DC 20208-8300

(202) 219-1741 (phone)

(202) 208-1689 (fax)

www.ed.gov/about/inits/list/fbci

email: faithandcommunity@ed.gov

Department of Agriculture

14th and Independence Avenue, SW

Office of the Secretary, Room 218-A Washington, DC 20250

(202) 720-3631 (phone)

(202) 690-2119 (fax)

www.usda.gov/fbci 

email: fbci@usda.gov

U.S. Agency for International Development

(USAID)

1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20523

(202) 712-4080 (phone)

(202) 216-3351 (fax)

http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/global_partnerships/fbci/ 

ggrigsby@usaid.gov

U.S. Department of Labor

Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Our mission is to empower

faith-based and community organizations as

they help their neighbors enter,

succeed and thrive in the workforce. We target those organizations that are trusted institutions

providing valuable services, but

may not have had the opportunity to collaborate or partner with

government programs. To

accomplish our mission, we initiate innovative partnerships

between faith-based and community organizations that can

address the needs of the most disadvantaged members of our communities, who are often beyond

the government’s “know-how.”

We educate organizations about

local opportunities to collaborate

and about opportunities to participate in national grant programs. We eliminate barriers to

fair treatment of faith-based and

community organizations within

the Department’s programs, and

we educate local government

officials and administrators

about how they can integrate

faith-based and community

organizations into service delivery

Outreach Resources and decision making processes.

overnment has a solemn

responsibility to help meet the

needs of poor Americans and

distressed neighborhoods, but

it does not have a monopoly on compassion.

America is richly blessed by the diversity

and vigor of neighborhood healers: civic,

social, charitable, and religious groups.

These quiet heroes lift people’s lives in ways

that are beyond government’s know-how,

usually on shoestring budgets, and they heal

our nation’s ills one heart and one act of

kindness at a time. 

The indispensable and transforming work

of faith-based and other charitable service

groups must be

encouraged. 

The paramount

goal must be compassionate results,

not compassionate

intentions. Federal

policy should

reject the failed

formula of towering, distant bureaucracies

that too often prize process over performance. We must be outcome-based, insisting

on success and steering resources to the

effective and to the inspired. G

Rallying the Armies of Compassion: President Bush's 

Blueprint for the Faith-Based and Community Initiative

,,

“

n this brochure, you will find valuable information about the projects and initiatives

undertaken by the Department of Labor Center for Faith-Based and Community

Initiatives to help people in need and create a level playing field for faith-based and

community organizations that want to participate in the Department of Labor’s

national grant programs.

Since President Bush established the Center in 2001, the Department of Labor has worked to

reduce barriers and create new funding and partnership opportunities for faith-based and 

community groups. It started with a project to create new partnerships between the Job Corps

local organizations mentor programs. Following a competitive grant process, DOL awarded the

first federal government grants for the purposes of building links between small faith-based and

community groups and the nation’s premier job training and employment 

institution, the One-Stop Career Center system. The DOL Center, along with the Employment 

and Training Administration, the Department of Justice and Public/Private Ventures based in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has launched Ready4Work, a faith- and community-based program

to assist men and women returning from prison in finding and keeping jobs. The Center has also

worked with the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service to strengthen services for the

homeless, the Office of Disability Employment Policy to encourage faith- and community-based

mentoring of disabled youth, and the International Labor Affairs Bureau in working with faithbased and community groups throughout the world to reduce trafficking in human

persons and fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in East Africa. And, we are just getting

started! 

I am very proud of the work that the Department of Labor and its Center have

done to empower faith-based and community organizations. I congratulate you on

your interest in serving Americans and the world through President Bush’s FaithBased and Community Initiative. With your compassion and commitment, we can

make a real difference in our country and the world around us. I

,,

“

White House Office of Faith-Based and

Community Initiatives

The White House Washington, DC 20502

(202) 456-6708 (phone)

(202) 456-7019 (fax) 

www.fbci.gov 

Agency Centers for Faith-Based and Community

Initiatives 

Department of Justice

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Room 4413 Washington, DC 20530

(202) 514-2987 (phone)

(202) 616-9627 (fax)

www.ojp.usdoj.gov/fbci

email: fbci@usdoj.gov 

Department of Labor

200 Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20210

(202) 693-6450 (phone)

(202) 693-6146 (fax)

www.dol.gov/cfbci 

email: contact-cfbci@dol.gov

Department of Health and Human Services

200 Independence Avenue, SW Suite 120-F Washington, DC 20201

(202) 358-3595 (phone)

(202) 401-3463 (fax)

www.hhs.gov/fbci 

email: cfbci@hhs.gov
The Center for Faith Based and

Community Initiatives (CFBCI) conducts

outreach to educate faith-based and community organizations about national grant

programs as well as local opportunities to

collaborate. There are two basic types of

federal funding: formula funding, which

goes directly to state governments, and

discretionary funding, which is competed

for and may be awarded to non-profits,

businesses, or government agencies. The

following Department of Labor agencies

and offices regularly release discretionary

grants: the Employment and Training

Administration (ETA), Veterans’

Employment and Training Service (VETS),

Bureau of International Labor Affairs

(ILAB), and the Occupational Safety and

Health Administration (OSHA). These

agencies list current and past grant opportunities on CFBCI’s Web site,

www.dol.gov/cfbci. CFBCI works with

each of these agencies to ensure their grant

solicitations are written in a clear manner

so that they are accessible to all organizations. Advice on grant-writing is available

at www.dol.gov/cfbci.

Because at least 85% of DOL’s resources for

employment and training services are distributed through state and local government, one

primary focus of CFBCI’s outreach is encouraging collaboration with the nation’s OneStop Career Centers. Through materials, presentations, and conferences, CFBCI educates

faith-based and community organizations

about the resources available. Materials that

educate faith-based and community organizations about how to pursue partnerships with

local One-Stop Career Centers are available

on CFCBI’s Web site under “Faith-Based and

Community Information.” CFBCI also helps

local government administrators and officials

within the One-Stop System to conduct outreach to faith-based and community organizations. Materials designed for One-Stop operators and government administrators are available on CFBCI’s Web site under “Workforce

Leader Information.” 

CFBCI has produced the Touching Lives and

Communities Video Training Series. The series

provides technical assistance in a number of

● New guidelines for expanding partnerships

between Job Corps Centers and FBCOs have

been published by DOL;

● New regulations have been implemented to protect the free-exercise of religion by Job Corps

students; and

● Several of the juvenile Ready4Work sites are

now linked to Job Corps Centers that participated in the Job Corps pilot.

Touching Lives and Communities: Memphis

and Milwaukee

The Touching Lives and Communities Technical

Assistance Project is designed to bridge the divide

between the local Workforce Investment Boards

(WIB) and faith-based and community organizations (FBCO) and provide models for successful

interaction between the two. The initiative’s goal

is three-fold: first, increase access of hard-toreach populations in high-poverty neighborhoods

and communities; next, facilitate full partnership

between FBCOs, WIBs and One-Stop Career

Centers in local economic development strategic

planning processes; and finally, develop tools for

sharing resources, building new relationships and

working toward sustainable partnerships for

WIBs and FBCOs.

Through this initiative, DOL CFBCI is helping Workforce Boards around the country replicate

practices that will allow them to partner better

with FBCOs. The CFBCI, www.dol-tlc.org Web

page, allows Workforce Boards and non-profit

leaders to discuss effective practices designed to

transition people to work. In November 2004,

USDOL CFBCI hosted a two-week online conferWorkforce Investment Boards (WIB) to focus

on improving employment opportunities for

low-income populations in partnership with

FBCOs. 

ence to help facilitate learning among leaders

across the country and finding solutions to local

issues. 

For more information please contact 

contact-cfbci@dol.gov.

Grants Targeted at Increasing Partnerships

with Faith-Based and Community

Organizations.

Beginning in 2002, DOL has sought to help integrate FBCOs in the One-Stop Career Center system. Grants were awarded to states, intermediary

organizations, and small FBCOs. The grantees

were to accomplish three primary objectives:

1) Increase the number of faith-based and community organizations serving as committed partners in

the One-Stop delivery system;

2) Expand the access of faith-based and community

organizations’ clients and customers to the services

offered by One-Stops; and

3) Identify, document, showcase, and replicate successful instances of faith-based and communitybased involvement in system building.

In 2003, grants were awarded to intermediary and

grassroots grantees to bring together One-Stop

Career Center resources with those of grassroots

FBCOs. In 2004 & 2005, more than two million

dollars was invested in grants to grassroots organizations.

Finally, in 2004, grants were also awarded to

Ready4Work Initiative: A Business-FaithCommunity-Criminal Justice Partnership

(R4W)

The Changing Workforce. Low employee retention.

Lack of qualified, skilled labor. Businesses across

the country identify these critical issues as motivating factors for considering hiring ex-offenders and

other underemployed populations. In its continuing

effort to expand our nation’s workforce and reduce

crime and recidivism, the U.S. Department of

Labor’s Center for Faith-Based and Community

Initiatives (CFBCI) developed Ready4Work, a threeyear, $32.5 million national reintegration employment demonstration project in 16 cities across the

country. Ready4Work’s demand-side approach partners with local businesses, faith-based and community organizations, workforce investment boards, and

criminal justice agencies to: ● Meet critical business employment needs by providing qualified, job-ready workers to businesses

to curtail anticipated worker shortages and

increase employee retention; 

● Provide 5,200 juvenile and adult ex-offenders

with job training and placement, voluntary, nonsectarian mentoring and case-management services; and

● Reduce crime and recidivism by providing the

kinds of services and supports that are known to

improve returnees’ likelihood of making healthy

attachments to mainstream life, and decreasing

their likelihood of engaging in criminal behavior.

Ready4Work forges new territory in meeting the

many complex needs of returnees and in identifying

resources. Grant awards are expected by Fall

2005

For more information please contact 

contact-cfbci@dol.gov.

Job Corps – Public/Private Ventures

(P/PV) Partnership

Job Corps is one of the Department of Labor’s

most important programs for assisting youth who

need job training outside traditional educational

and vocational settings. The Department’s Center

for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and

the Employment and Training Administration

(ETA) concluded that Job Corps applicants and

participants would benefit from valuable supplementary services offered by faith-based and community organizations (FBCO), but found that Job

Corps Centers have frequently lacked effective

partnerships with FBCOs. 

To address the practical barriers that limited effective collaboration between Job Corp and FBCOs,

The Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao

announced a Cooperative Agreement between

Public/Private Ventures and Job Corps to implement a mutual referral network between six Job

Corps Centers and six FBCOs participating in a

National Faith-Based Initiative for High-Risk

Youth sponsored by Public/Private Ventures. 

These partnerships show promising results: ● Participating youth with FBCO non-sectarian

mentors were able to complete the lengthy Job

Corps application process at a significantly

higher rate than the national average for Job

Corps applicants;

and eliminating the many barriers they face to

successful reintegration into their communities.

Ready4Work is jointly funded by DOL, the U.S.

Department of Justice, Public/Private Ventures

and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

For more information please contact 

contact-cfbci@dol.gov.

Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative (PRI)

In his January 2004 State of the Union address,

President George W. Bush announced a four-year

Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative in collaboration with

the U.S. Departments of Labor, Justice and

Housing and Urban Development. The PRI

builds upon the successes of the DOL Center for

Faith-Based and Community Initiatives’

Ready4Work demonstration project. It is

designed to strengthen urban communities

through an employment-centered program that

incorporates housing, mentoring, job training,

and other comprehensive transitional services.

This program seeks to reduce recidivism by helping non-violent, formerly incarcerated individuals

find employment, stable housing and wraparound support services when they return to their

communities.

The PRI will draw on the unique strengths of

faith-based and community organizations (FBCO)

and rely on them as a primary partner for social

service delivery to ex-prisoners by providing a

direct link into the communities to which they are

returning.

Congress has already approved $30 million for

the PRI for 2005. In 2006, the President’s budget

includes a $75 million request for expanded

areas, including strategic planning, board

development, private and government

funding, and program evaluation. This

and all other materials may be ordered or

viewed through CFBCI’s Web site,

www.dol.gov/cfbci.