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Sister Eileen McNerney helps make "good men from bad boys" through hands-on job training and job placement.

McNerney, a 2007 Purpose Prize fellow, recently presented her ideas to participants in Changemakers, a network organized by Ashoka, the pioneer in the field of social entrepreneurship. This week, her organization, Taller San Jose was named one of the winners of Ashoka’s Collaborative Changemaker Competition, and will receive a $5,000 Changemaker award.

Taller San Jose was honored for its innovative approach to curbing youth violence through a comprehensive employment program that helps youth “at the edge of crime” or recently incarcerated young people change their behaviors through hands-on job training and placement. More than 90% of previously incarcerated graduates have not re-offended due to the motivating power of paid work.

Changemakers is a unique, open source competition for organizations to showcase their work in specific areas, network with stakeholders, and collect ideas and comments from peers “to present a more powerful strategy.”

Sister McNerney found her calling in 1982 after listening helplessly to a mother in her Santa Ana, CA neighborhood cry over the body of her slain son, the second child she had lost to gang violence. It was in this moment that she committed herself to “constructing good men from bad boys.”

She founded her organization by building relationships with gang members so she could assess the pitfalls young people in the community faced, such as the inability to finish high school or hold down jobs, and then designed a program to help young people get the training and help they needed to overcome these obstacles.

Taller San Jose brokers partnerships between employers, government officials and educators to help students successfully enter the workforce and earn a living wage with benefits. The construction training program includes strong support services including mentoring and counseling, legal assistance, 12-step support programs and job placement. Apprentices participate in 15-weeks of paid training ($8.00/hour) and acquire essential construction skills. Training focuses on fundamentals and incorporates safety, industry-related math, construction theory, attendance policies, mentoring, job-coaching, leadership development and hands-on training.

Taller San Jose, pronounced "tayer" in Spanish and meaning workshop, while San Jose (St. Joseph) is the patron saint of artisans and workers, has served 434 young men; 307 of which have entered the workforce as trained construction workers.

Over the next five years, Taller San Jose plans to expand its programs, including a new endeavor for low-income housing called Hope Builders, which will employ students and alumni. The expansion is particularly timely given Census Bureau estimates that the poverty rate for young people in this community will reach 55,000 by 2012.

Taller San Jose will be honored at the upcoming Young Men at Risk Change Summit hosted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.