David Rothenberg produces the Off-Broadway play Fortune and Men’s Eyes. The play’s evocative content spurred audience discussion around criminal justice, and eventually led to the founding of The Fortune Society.

Our Education program was founded in 1969 after Fortune participants asked for support in improving their literacy. Volunteer Melanie Johnson, a retired schoolteacher, was the first to give one-on-one tutoring sessions in vocabulary and grammar. Before long, Melanie was tutoring more students than she could handle. The need was clear. To recruit volunteers, David Rothenberg made an announcement on his WBAI radio show and found Lynn Orenstein, also a retired educator. Together, Lynn and Melanie structured the curriculum that later became our Education Program.

Fortune representatives, including founder David Rothenberg, are called to observe the Attica Prison uprising, a major incident in the Incarcerated People’s Rights Movement when individuals incarcerated at Attica Correctional Facility seized control of the prison to demand their fundamental right to human dignity. The uprising resulted in the bloodiest prison massacre in U.S. history and shed light on the injustices individuals with incarceration histories continue to face.

Our Employment Services program was founded in 1971 to support Fortune participants in their search of employment after incarceration. “In the beginning, we would just find jobs for participants, but we found that a lot of people weren’t ready,” says David Rothenberg. To better prepare participants, we built a training program organized around the expectations inherent to professional employment. In addition, we set about challenging barriers and policies hindering formerly incarcerated people from obtaining employment. “Our advocacy challenges both the government and private sector for restricting our people from working,” says David Rothenberg.

Fortune took a significant step toward our community engagement by introducing food education initiatives. Our journey commenced with dynamic cooking demonstrations, enlightening nutrition education workshops, and the innovative launch of a client-operated Grab-n-Go snack booth. As part of our commitment to enhancing client services, we elevated our efforts by offering nourishing, freshly prepared meals to clients in our cafeteria. This initiative ensured that clients had access to wholesome, hot food served three times a day. 

JoAnne Page succeeds David Rothenberg as Fortune’s Executive Director. Today, she is the President and CEO.

Though it was clear our participants needed a program that emphasized rehabilitation over punishment, we didn’t have the means to provide for one in our early years. Founder David Rothenberg recalls one of our first Alternative to Incarceration (ATI) participants: a young man sent to Fortune by a judge instead of prison after he was arraigned for gang activity. “He liked being here and we liked him,” David recalls. “He said there was another kid in his gang who could use some help. Within six weeks, we had eighteen members of the gang participating at Fortune.” In 1991, Fortune finally launched its ATI program.

The Substance Use Treatment program is created, empowering individuals with substance use histories and trauma from incarceration to heal and recover.

“People hit enormous discrimination after coming home from incarceration. The other issue is in a city like New York, affordable housing is so scarce…” says JoAnne Page, Fortune’s President and CEO. In the early days of the organization’s history, staff members routinely housed Fortune participants in their homes. “People wouldn’t live in single occupancy hotels because these negative environments were a threat to people’s recovery. I would say ‘you can stay on my couch,'” David Rothenberg explained. To address the lack of safe, affordable housing options for people with justice histories, Fortune opened The Fortune Academy (a.k.a. “the Castle”) in 2002. This emergency and transitional housing development, located in West Harlem, offers a safe and supportive community for people coming home from prison.

In honor of our founder’s tireless efforts to promote the rights and fair treatment of people with histories of justice involvement, Fortune launched the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy (DRCPP) in 2007. Through policy development, advocacy, technical assistance, training, research, and community education, DRCPP works to build an equitable and conscionable criminal justice system, change counterproductive laws and policies, and promote effective program models for people with criminal justice histories.

Fortune’s supportive and affordable housing development, Castle Gardens, opens its doors. In an environmentally sustainable building, complete with a rooftop garden, Castle Gardens is a long-term housing solution for individuals with justice involvement and their families, as well as affordable apartments for the West Harlem community.

The nationwide deinstitutionalization in the early 1970s led to the rapid closing of mental health institutions, but not to the opening of alternative care centers. “They dumped people with mental health needs on the street,” David Rothenberg says, “There were no places for them to go except to places like Fortune.” We needed to respond thoughtfully to this growing issue. “Inevitably, we had to create something to address those needs here.” Our Better Living Center (BLC), an NYS Office of Mental Health-licensed outpatient mental health clinic, opened in 2011 to provide direct clinical services to Fortune participants in need of rehabilitative support and mental health care.

Mayor Bloomberg pioneers the transformative “I-CAN“ program, a groundbreaking initiative to curb recidivism rates. This visionary program revolutionizes reentry training by introducing it during individuals’ incarceration, setting the stage for a smoother transition back into society. By addressing the challenges of reintegration proactively, “I-CAN” holds the promise of fostering lasting change and reducing the cycle of re-offending.

Fortune achieved a groundbreaking settlement in Fortune Society v. Sandcastle Towers Housing Development Fund Corp, enabling advocacy groups to challenge landlords’ blanket bans on renting to individuals with criminal records under the Fair Housing Act. This achievement highlights the commitment to equitable housing and social justice, addressing the disproportionate impact on racial minorities. The success marks a pivotal step in combating discrimination in housing.

The Mandaela Community‘s initiative to establish 57 permanent supportive apartments for seniors reflects a dedicated effort to address the unique needs of this demographic. This program centers around providing a stable and comfortable living environment for seniors, focusing on their physical and emotional well-being.