Many MindedA Chicago reentry nonprofit builds a path from release to solar work
The Safer Foundation, a Chicago nonprofit founded in 1972 to train and place formerly incarcerated people, now runs clean energy job training out of its West Side headquarters, a former Sears Roebuck campus building. Staff are finishing a two-story mock house in an old gymnasium for solar and electrical practice. The building also houses a halfway house for 250 men.
Safer has been one of Illinois' state-funded clean energy workforce hubs since 2024, under the 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which followed the 2017 Future Energy Jobs Act in prioritizing training for people from marginalized communities. The program starts with a month of basic skills, then three to six weeks of solar or weatherization training. Trainees receive stipends, and some can move into pre-apprenticeships leading to union jobs. Employer agreements with Millennium Solar Electric and Sunrun commit those companies to hiring clients. About three-quarters of solar trainees so far have been justice-involved.
The organization also offers 148 units of subsidized and affordable housing, an on-site food pantry, and in-house substance abuse recovery and anger management services. A state grant will let it begin training inside an Illinois prison for people within three years of release.
This matters because it links a population that often struggles to find work to a growing field that needs labor, and it pairs training with housing and food support. Over three years, more than 100 people earned industry certifications and 79 got jobs, according to Safer's Katrice Harris.
The caveats are real. Those figures come from Safer staff and are not independently verified. Companies are often reluctant to hire people with convictions or work gaps. Vincent Jones, 41, a graduate who now instructs in state clean energy trainings, said his solar jobs did not last long. Watch whether placements prove durable and whether the in-prison training takes hold.
Source: Canary Media