Homes in the Hood

Job Training Center

Skills that pay, with a career path you can grow into.

Our headline program

A career in tax preparation

Most training programs teach a trade and send you out to beg an employer for a chance. Ours is different. Tax preparation is a credentialed career with a real ladder, it is indoor, seated work, and many people with records can enter it. A felony conviction is not an automatic bar to an IRS preparer number, and the first rung of the ladder has no background check at all.

Preparing taxes pays in the first season. A newly credentialed preparer can earn real money from January through April, the months right after many people come home. Trainees get hands-on practice preparing returns under supervision at a working tax office, the experience every employer wants.

The ladder

Three rungs, each reachable from the one below

1

IRS volunteer tax certification (VITA)

Free, online certification through the IRS. Typically a few weeks. Real returns prepared for real families, and a credential on your resume within a month.

2

PTIN and the Annual Filing Season Program

An IRS preparer number, 18 hours of continuing education and a test. Opens paid seasonal preparation work and limited representation rights for returns you prepare.

3

Enrolled Agent (EA)

Three IRS exams for the highest credential the IRS awards, with unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS. A nationally portable career, not just a season.

IRS eligibility depends on each person's circumstances, including the type and date of any conviction. We help every trainee understand where they stand before they invest time or money.

Job readiness for any career

Around the tax track sits a job-readiness program for everyone, whatever career you choose:

  • Resume and interview coaching, with honest advice on talking about your record
  • Digital literacy and computer basics
  • GED preparation
  • OSHA 10 safety certification
  • Financial literacy, banking and credit
  • Help restoring a driver's license, one of the biggest practical barriers after release

Employers: hire from a trained pipeline

If you need dependable workers, we want to hear from you. We work with employers who are ready to hire people with records, and we prepare our trainees for the job before they walk in your door.

Partner as an employer

Want to train with us?

Residents get priority, and the training center will also welcome other people coming home from incarceration in our community.

Tell us about yourself