Ready, Willing & Able | The Doe Fund

In 1990, The Doe Fund founded its award-winning Ready, Willing & Able program in a single 70-bed facility in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. More than twenty years later, Ready, Willing & Able serves nearly 800 formerly homeless and formerly incarcerated men each day, and provides specialized programs for veterans and young adults. Our innovative workforce training model has been fully replicated in Philadelphia and adopted in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and several other U.S. cities.

With thousands of program graduates to date, Ready, Willing & Able has proven that the combination of paid work, stable housing, and comprehensive support services delivers the best and most reliable path to self-sufficiency for formerly homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals. As government at every level continues to face enormous challenges around unemployment, housing, and criminal recidivism, the Ready, Willing & Able model provides a proven solution.

Increasing numbers of local governments, nonprofits, and individuals contact us each year seeking to bring Ready, Willing & Able to their communities. With the support of a generous grant from the Oak Foundation, our senior staff traveled the country, meeting with mayors, other elected officials, and service providers in municipalities. The response was overwhelming, and we are now in the process of developing a new strategy to bring the Ready, Willing & Able model to more high-need communities.

During this time, we are eager to hear from elected officials, agency heads, private community-based organizations, and concerned individuals interested in replication. Please contact us so that we may share updates with you as they become available. Thank you for your interest in Ready, Willing & Able.

Click here to take a survey that will help us refine our national replication strategy.