No. While RWA was founded as a holistic program combining paid work with transitional housing and social services for formerly homeless individuals, we have responded to the national crisis of criminal recidivism and have adapted RWA to meet the needs of individuals re-entering society after incarceration.

We offer RWA-Residential for formerly homeless individuals in need of housing, and RWA-Day for individuals under parole supervision who have housing but can benefit from transitional employment and social services as they stabilize and integrate back into their communities.

The RWA-Residential program is 9 to 12 months and the RWA-Day program is 6 to 9 months — from intake to graduation — with on-going, lifetime graduate services thereafter. While the core of the RWA program is full-time paid transitional work, as well as the maintenance of sobriety, we offer a number of additional services and resources throughout a trainee's experience. Please review our "trainee roadmap" that graphically describes the flow of RWA from day 1 to graduation and beyond.

No. We offer rolling admission, meaning that at any given time, trainees living in a particular facility (or in the RWA-Day program) will be at various stages of the program. For example, some trainees will be participating in program orientation, some will be working in a Doe Fund venture, and some will moving on to independent housing all at the exact same time.

We hold one graduation celebration per year in each city in which we operate for all individuals who reach and maintain graduate status in that year.

A trainee will graduate when he obtains and can verify full-time, permanent employment, independent housing and lasting sobriety. In order to achieve Diamond graduate status and be recognized in our annual graduation, he or she must participate in Graduate Services by providing monthly proof of employment and housing, in addition to a clean drug test.

RWA is a model for providing a successful path for formerly homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals to re-enter society and achieve self-sufficiency. After nearly 20 years of results, RWA has earned a reputation among government, service providers and communities as a pragmatic, yet compassionate, program that offers a "hand up" rather than a "hand out." Many individuals seek our services after hearing about RWA in shelters, prisons or on the street. In the cities where we operate we receive referrals from government agencies working with homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals.

For all RWA-Residential programs, applicants are eligible if they are:

1. Homeless;
2. Physically and mentally able to work 35 hours/week;
3. Committed to living drug and alcohol free and being randomly drug tested twice weekly; and
4. If on welfare, willing to give it up.

For all RWA-Day programs, applicants are eligible if they are:

1. On parole or probation;
2. Physically and mentally able to work 35 hours/week;
3. Committed to living drug and alcohol free and being randomly drug tested twice weekly; and
4. If on welfare, willing to give it up.

Currently, $7.40 per hour (above New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania minimum wage) for the first 210 days of work in a Doe Fund venture, and $8.15 per hour for the remainder of the program. We pay weekly and require trainees to save a portion of their earnings.

Yes. To mirror real life, all residential trainees pay a modest room and board fee of $105 per week. This includes three nutritious meals per day and access to community rooms, libraries, computer labs, and gardens in all facilities. We also have a mandatory saving program to help trainees save for future expenses associated with the transition to permanent housing.

Our RWA-Residential program is tied to the number of transitional housing beds we have in our facilities. In New York City, this number is currently 600; in Philadelphia, 70. The RWA-Day capacity is limited only by available funding. Currently we have 45 slots in New York City.

No. While we only house men in RWA transitional housing, the RWA-Day program is open to women.

The Doe Fund holds itself to the highest standard. To graduate from RWA trainees must not only achieve the triple crown of employment, housing and sobriety, they must keep in touch to repeatedly confirm their success. Our current success rate is 50%.

New York City, NY: Harlem, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and East Williamsburg
Philadelphia, PA

For more information, please see our facilities page.

We are funded through a variety of public and private sources. In fiscal year 2007, while The Doe Fund successfully raised 42% of our $42 million operating budget through donations and grants, we earned the majority of our revenues through contracts, rent from our housing programs, and our social purpose ventures. For more detail on our revenues and expenses, please see our financial information page.

The Doe Fund currently operates 5 business ventures. The Community Improvement Project provides supplemental street sanitation services; Pest @ Rest trains participants in integrated pest management; Back Office of New York is a full-service direct mail house; RWA Resource Recovery collects waste cooking oil from NYC restaurants for conversion into biodiesel fuel; and Culinary Arts prepares participants for careers in the food service industry. In every case, a successful The Doe Fund venture has met three criteria — job creation and training appropriate for the skills and interests of RWA trainees; a competitive, market-oriented business model fulfilling customer demand; and the generation of revenue sufficient to cover the cost of both business and training.

The Oak Foundation awarded The Doe Fund a generous grant to conduct research and evaluation of key cities in which to replicate. By 2012, The Doe Fund plans to have a presence in two more municipalities.

No. The Doe Fund also runs permanent and transitional housing programs for low-income individuals as well as for people living with AIDS.