Assistance program
Reentry Employment Opportunities
$932.7 Million committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- Employment and Training Administration, Labor, Department of
- Assistance
- Project Grants
- CFDA number
- 17.270
- What it does
- This program includes both reentry grants focused on serving returning adults and youth focused grants aimed at youth involved or at risk of involvement in crime and violence. The objectives of the youth reentry grants include increasing the employment, employment retention, and earnings rate of released individuals while also decreasing their rate of recidivism. The objectives of youth reentry grants include preventing in-school youth from dropping out of school, increasing the employment rate of out-of-school youth, improving the reading and math skills of youth, reducing the involvement of youth in crime and violence, and reducing the recidivism rate of youth. The REO program facilitates a smoother reentry for justice-involved individuals and helps them reintegrate into their communities. The goal is to develop strategies and partnerships that facilitate successful workforce outcomes for participants.
- Who benefits
- Reentry Employment Opportunities (REO) Adult grants serve individuals, 18 years old and older, who have been convicted as an adult and have been imprisoned for violating a state or federal law, and who have never been convicted of a sex-related offense. Depending on the solicitation, enrollment may be limited based on whether the presenting offense was violent or whether the individual has previously committed a violent crime. Eligible applicants for youth focused grants vary depending on the solicitation.
- Who applies
- Eligible youth, young adult and adult applicants for Reentry Employment Opportunities (REO) grants vary depending on the solicitation. Applicants are generally located in or have a staff presence in the community being served. Examples of possible eligible applicants include community-based organizations, school districts, state and local government juvenile justice agencies, tribal entities, and entities carrying out activities under WIOA, such as local Workforce Investment Boards or American Job Centers.
- Authorized by
- The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) was signed into law on July 22, 2014. It supersedes the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, and amends the Wagner-Peyser Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Only the version published in the Federal Register is the official re…
- Program site
- http://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/reentry ↗
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
How the money flows
Committed dollars by how this program's money is paid out.
Grants
$878.5M
94%
Other
$54.2M
6%
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments