ODA Blog

Since 2005 Open Door America has worked to unlock the secret codes of intergenerational poverty in America’s inner cities.  Now in year thirteen, our story has greater meaning and urgency than ever before.  Having come on line just nine years after metamorphic welfare reform in 1996, we were an immediate beneficiary of the raised social awareness generated by the faith-based initiative movement of the early 2000's.  By the end of our first decade, however, a sharp decline in nationwide community development investment, especially in the key area of federal housing, shifted our thinking away from traditional block-by-block redevelopment strategies to individualized programming targeting heads of households, young fathers, and in particular, ex-offenders and current offenders who hold sway in the poorest neighborhoods.  Today, 22 years into the nation’s endless rancorous debate over poverty and government spending, we operate in a political and cultural environment where the very existence of entrenched poverty is now openly and counter-factually questioned in Washington.  We believe the lessons learned from our improbable survivor's journey and the promising potential of our current efforts to retrieve first-time offenders and restore vetted recidivists are essential to this discussion and critical to America's social and economic future. 

ELLICOTT CITY, MD, September 18, 2025 -- Open Door America is pleased to announce a preliminary agreement has been reached with the Department of Corrections of Howard County, Maryland to provide case management and mentoring services in support of the county's work-release and reentry programs.  During the next 60 days, the parties will pursue a final agreement to create multiple employment-onboarding initiatives throughout Central Maryland beginning as early as December 2018.  This developing partnership is a prime example of the type of public-private cooperation that is desperately needed in the United States to assist ex-offenders in rebuilding their lives and employers in finding highly-motivated entry-level workers.  

Warren Buffett may be Open Door America's favorite rich man.  He just seems to get it.

Recently, we ran across a January 2017 replay of a Warren Buffet interview on the Charlie Rose show.  We like what he said about life and time:

"I can buy anything I want, but I can't buy time.  There is no way I will ever be able to buy more time."