ODA Blog - Perspective

Partnerships can be hard but in the end they almost always prove their worth.  Such is the case for Open Door America and a series of interwoven jobs partnerships that began in 2011 in embattled East Baltimore.  As Jacques Kelly's story in the August 12, 2026 Baltimore Sun shows, the best partnerships take time, heart, and determination.  We first got involved in East Baltimore over nine years ago feeding and clothing needy people.  We continue our work today through skills training and job placement partnerships with outstanding organizations like Your Baltimore Community Development (YBCD).  When you support the excellent work of YBCD, you help further the mission of Open Door America.  Partnerships get it done!        

Word that Washington is making plans to slash the funding of a critical pro-manufacturing and pro-worker public-private partnership at a time when the nation is spending $1 trillion a year on public assistance, has 47 million people living in poverty, and leads the world in incarceration makes no sense whatsoever.  We are calling on the friends and supporters of Open Door America to speak up and make a difference.  Now is the time to contact your Senator and Representative in support of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP).  If you live and vote in Maryland, contact Governor Larry Hogan and encourage him to use his influence to protect this vital pro-Maryland program.  We thank you!

While America spent the past summer and early fall obsessing over emails and tweets, Open Door America kept its eye on the ball.

With an estimated 31 percent of U.S. adults now saddled with a criminal record -- yes, you read that right -- the grim job prospects of our exploding ex-offender population represent the least-understood national security threat awaiting the next President and Congress.

For the past five years, ODA has made the issue of ex-offender employment its top priority.  That's because no single group of Americans will have a greater impact on the nation's future in the coming decades.  Put every ex-offender to work in a living-wage job and you decrease the number of people living in poverty by 20 percent.  On the other hand, do nothing to reduce the nation's 50 percent recidivism rate and the Gross Domestic Product will continue to lose $65 billion annually.