Chicago program helps people transition from prison to solar jobs

Inside a brick building on Chicago’s West Side — once part of a sprawling Sears Roebuck campus — is an adult transitional center, or halfway house, that’s home to 250 men completing sentences for criminal convictions and preparing to reenter society. 

Just down the hallway from their living quarters, a high-ceilinged former gymnasium holds an unexpected sight: a two-story under-construction home, complete with exposed insulation and electric fixtures.

This is where residents of the halfway house, and other men and women who have been involved with the criminal justice system, train for a new chapter in their lives: work in the solar industry. 

It’s part of a larger workforce initiative to inject equity into the state’s clean energy transition.

Illinois’ 2017 and 2021 clean energy laws created job training programs that prioritize people from marginalized communities, and include remedial education, interpersonal and professional skills, and wraparound services to help them with childcare, car problems, mental health needs, and other challenges. 

The state has a specific focus on including the formerly incarcerated in this effort, and the Safer Foundation, headquartered in this brick building, has been central to achieving that. 

Since 1972, the nonprofit has equipped people who were formerly incarcerated with skills and helped them get jobs. Safer President and CEO Mark Yates said that clean energy is a promising sector, offering entry-level jobs, opportunities to advance, and carpentry and electrical experience that also translates to other fields. 

Safer says that its relationships with employers like utility-scale developer Millennium Solar Electric and residential installer SunRun help, since companies are often reluctant to hire people with criminal convictions or gaps in work history.

“They’ve been incarcerated beyond technology advances” in many cases, Yates noted, and may have to learn how to use a smartphone, for example, along with mastering solar technology.

In the past three years, more than 100 people have obtained clean energy–related industry certifications through Safer’s training, and 79 of them have gotten jobs, said Katrice Harris, the foundation’s training and employment account executive. 

“The types of individuals we serve encounter a little more trouble with barriers, but we have staff fully certified and trained to help push to get these clients employed,” she said. ​“The job development team goes out and makes connections with employers, where they build relationships and create MOUs where employers agree to hire these clients and give them a second chance.”

Holistic approach

Yates said people with criminal convictions are often ​“better workers” than average, ​“because they feel this is their one and only chance to get something right.” But for many, work ethic alone is not enough.

That’s why Safer offers substance abuse recovery, anger management, and other social services in-house, which some trainees need not only for their health but also to comply with court mandates. 

“They get workplace and diversity skills training, financial literacy, soft skills,” Harris said. ​“It’s all geared toward getting the guys and women credentially equipped so they can land jobs and become self-sufficient.”

Solar trainees have access to services that Safer offers its clients, including counseling and substance abuse treatment. 

There’s an on-site food pantry styled as a grocery store, and Safer personal shoppers help people make their selections. Every detail is aimed at creating a feeling of normalcy and empowerment, Yates said, rather than an ​“institutional” vibe. 

Safer also aims to help the significant number of people with criminal convictions who are unhoused, through 148 units of subsidized and affordable housing, as well as services like storing people’s belongings while they’re at work.

A growing pipeline 

Safer started its own construction company in 2016, wherein trainees turned employees do renovation and carpentry work for the organization and other clients. Weatherization and solar panel installation were a natural progression of that work. 

The foundation received a state grant for solar training created by the 2017 Future Energy Jobs Act, a federal grant for solar training in 2021. 

Since 2024, it has been among the clean energy workforce hubs created and funded by the state’s 2021 Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. Trainees receive stipends for participating in the program, which includes a month of basic skills followed by three to six weeks of training in either solar or weatherization. There’s also the possibility of pre-apprenticeships that can lead to labor union jobs. 

Yates said Safer’s on-site mock-up house goes beyond what many solar trainings offer, and helps students fully experience what it’s like to work in the industry. 

He notes that some trainees are afraid of heights, so the program lets them get comfortable with working on a roof while clipped into safety harnesses. They learn how to wire the home and work with an inverter, gaining experience with the electrical side of solar power.

People who live in areas identified as ​“equity eligible” or meet other criteria — including involvement with the criminal justice or foster care systems — qualify for the trainings under Illinois’ clean energy law. The law also created robust incentives for employers to hire those who meet the equity criteria. 

Safer prioritizes people from Chicago’s South Side and West Side, areas with a disproportionate number of low-income communities and a history of disinvestment. About three-quarters of Safer’s solar trainees so far have been justice-involved, but others who meet the state criteria are also eligible. 

The organization also has a state grant to launch trainings inside an Illinois prison, for people within three years of their release date. Upon release, they will be sent to Safer for mentorship and connections to employers. 

Vincent Jones, who has an IT background, found out about the solar training from a relative who had done it, and he applied while between jobs. Jones utilized the food pantry and received a laptop as part of the program. He was also pleased to realize that Safer could help him expunge his record of a legal problem that did not involve incarceration.

Since graduating last fall, Jones, 41, has received multiple solar-related certifications and worked in installation and maintenance of residential and utility-scale solar, including a job in Dallas with developer RWE.

“They were not positions that lasted a long time, but enough to give me a little experience,” he said.

Now, he is an instructor for the state clean energy trainings, including at a youth development academy on Chicago’s South Side.

“I took the bull by the horns and tried to get more and more information,” he said. ​“Even though I like working in the field, I think helping to prepare others is my calling — the vocational realm where I can teach others to further themselves.”