CCT Blog

“Building People, Not Prisons” isn’t just the Center for Community Transitions tagline. It’s how Executive Director Patrice Funderburg models her path to leading transformative change within the Charlotte community — lowering recidivism, improving access and opportunities to sustainable employment, and disrupting the generational cycle of poverty to prison. The Charlotte Ledger recognized Patrice among “local…

More than a year after the pandemic hit, residents serving out the final years of their sentences through our Center of Women program are finally seeing the light at the end of the dark COVID tunnel. “The ladies have gone through some challenging times with not being able to work, no visitation, no home visits…

Most of the criminal justice conversations in our community are about policing and law enforcement, not on reentry, transition and reducing recidivism. But all of these topics are connected because issues with police result in pathways to incarceration.   In March, Executive Director Patrice Funderburg sat down with Queen City Nerve Editor Ryan Pitkin to talk…

The successful second chance partnership between the Center for Community Transitions and Bojangles was one of the highlights of Fair Chance Conversations, a Levelset podcast featuring Executive Director Patrice Funderburg. Levelset works with companies, such as Bojangles, to minimize barriers to attracting and retaining high-quality talent. Team members Matt Joyce, Alex Love and Salomon Moreno-Rosa…

Patrick Diamond, a longtime and active member of Charlotte’s business, nonprofit and arts communities, has joined the Center for Community Transitions team as interim development director. For the next six months, he’ll focus on major gifts to raise $1 million for our agency through foundations, corporations, individuals and the faith community. Part of Patrick’s efforts…

When I joined CCT as the agency’s first Black Executive Director in January 2020, I was excited about the symbolic transition after Myra Clark had successfully led the organization for over three decades. With an increasing national focus on criminal justice, I anchored my leadership focus on meeting the team and learning about and assessing…

As birth rates decline and the labor market tightens, the “richest pool of potential” in the economy are people who have been touched by the justice system, according to Jeff Korzenik, chief economist at Fifth Third Bank. Korzenik is a national advocate for second chance employment and author of “Untapped Talent: How Second Chance Hiring…

Ending Economic and Social Inequalities Takes Collective Community Effort If Charlotte wants to become a city without economic and social inequalities, the whole community – both public and private sectors – must disrupt the cycle of incarceration by reevaluating hiring practices and supporting second chance employment. That was the consensus among the 100-plus employers, workforce…

It’s no coincidence the Center for Community Transitions chose Feb. 25 as the date for its Second Chance Employment virtual summit on investing in and hiring workers with criminal records. That day marked three years since the unexpected death of Ramona Brant, a City of Charlotte employee who was making the most of her “gift”…