The Work of Opportunity
Updates
Sep 29, 2025
As the US approaches its 250th anniversary, we are reflecting on America’s founding ideals—and asking whether the promise of opportunity still holds true today.
Featured
Media
Aug 23, 2021
Expungement Crisis: The Long Wait to Restore ‘Ruined Lives’
The Crime Report highlights the devastating collateral consequences of justice system involvement and uplifts solutions like Clean Slate policies.
Media
Aug 16, 2021
Library partners with nonprofit to help provide children with free eye exams and glasses
A Baltimore-based news outlet highlights Vision To Learn's collaboration with local library branches to provide children with free eye exams and glasses.
Media
Aug 15, 2021
Filling in the skills gap: A new way of training workers to match the jobs
Matter of Fact spotlights Social Finance's Career Impact Bond and its partnership with American Diesel Training Center as an example of initiatives aimed at providing workers with the skills they need for in-demand careers.
voices
Aug 13, 2021
Barron’s Live: Justice and Economic Mobility
Managing Director Mindy Tarlow and Tanya Coke, a program director at the Ford Foundation, join the Barron's Live podcast to discuss the Justice and Mobility Fund with Penta senior writer Abby Schultz.
Media
Aug 6, 2021
A New Pathway for Working Adults?: The Key Podcast
In an episode of Inside Higher Ed's The Key podcast, Merit America Co-CEOs Rebecca Taber Staehelin and Connor Diemand-Yauman share how their organization is helping pave new ways for adults to enter or advance in the workforce.
Media
Aug 4, 2021
WATCH: Zearn CEO Shalinee Sharma Talks About How Her Math App Revealed the Pandemic’s Widening Learning Gaps in Real Time
Zearn Co-Founder and CEO Shalinee Sharma shares how data from their math app, used by 1 in 4 elementary-age children nationwide, showed a widening learning gap as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Media
Aug 4, 2021
If You Paid Your Debt to Society, You Should Be Allowed to Work
Writing in The New York Times, JP Morgan Chase & Co. Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon expresses support for initiatives like Clean Slate, which help expand employment opportunities for justice-involved people.
Media
Jul 31, 2021
Removing Barriers to Success Created by the Criminal Justice System
Barron's interviews Blue Meridian's Mindy Tarlow and Ford Foundation's Tanya Coke about how the Justice and Mobility collaboration is working to remove economic barriers for justice-involved people, and it uplifts stories from several investees.
Media
Jul 29, 2021
Erlanger program teams up nurse with first time moms
A local news station in Tennessee shares how the Nurse-Family Partnership program, started in Chattanooga in December 2020, is already making a difference in the lives of new moms and babies in the area.
Media
Jul 27, 2021
Coalition Boosts Economic Mobility Within Criminal Justice System
The NonProfit Times highlights the Justice and Mobility collaboration between Blue Meridian Partners, Ford Foundation, and Schusterman Family Philanthropies and its efforts to improve the life trajectories of justice-impacted people.