The Ohio Green Prison Project (OGPP) recently entered “Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World that Works,” an online competition sponsored by Ashoka’s Changemakers and the eBay Foundation. The organizations hope to find “the world’s most innovative market-based solutions that create economic opportunity and generate employment for disadvantaged populations.”

OGPP designs and implements green vocational training and reentry programs. Through this project, incarcerated men and women will learn skills that can prepare them to work in the growing green sector of the job market upon release. Departments of corrections are increasingly pursuing initiatives to reduce facilities’ environmental impact and operating costs; OGPP will provide the added benefit of training and reentry programming for people who might otherwise return to the community with few job skills.

Ashoka Changemakers received almost 900 entries from 83 countries for this competition. If you visit the Powering Economic Opportunity section of the Changemakers website, you can read a lot of inspiring, imaginative ideas. I encourage you to read OGPP’s entry and to leave a comment if you have any thoughts or questions. We look forward to hearing what you think!