Edward Powell, Mpa Email & Phone Number

Ed served as Vice President for community Engagement at the Justice Resource Institute and Executive Director of the STRIVE Boston program (JRI) May 2014 until November of 2023. His community engagement work focused on building community relationships that allowed JRI to expand its trauma informed programming to neighborhoods effected by violence. At STRIVE, he led a nationally acclaimed workforce development program. He developed a new career pathway program to serve people with long-term barriers to employment; collaborated with technical trainers for participants to gain credentials to enter higher wage jobs and careers Prior to JRI, Ed was the Executive Director of Street Safe Boston a youth violence intervention initiative of the Boston Foundation where He led an internationally recognized violence prevention initiative working with 20 of the most active gangs in Boston in neighborhoods disproportionately impacted by violence.StreetSafe engaged 200 youth or roughly 1% of Boston’s gang population, who were most likely to shoot or be shot, on a yearly basis. Gangs involved with StreetSafe saw significant decreases in gun related violence. He also implemented the StreetSafe Transitional Employment program (STEP) which increased the amount of employment opportunities by 150% for gang-involved youth in the program with not one incident of violence. Prior to StreetSafe, Ed was at the Boston Private Industry Council, where he served as deputy director where he developed a constructive public engagement strategy, focusing on bringing more awareness of the youth programs to the community. Prior to his appointment as deputy director of the PIC, Powell’s tenure at the PIC included almost a decade as the director of school-to-career programs, where he oversaw the execution of the largest private sector youth summer job programs in the country. Ed is an effective spokesperson and thought leader on the issue of youth violence and Workforce Development both nationally and internationally. He has a BS in Marketing from Delaware State University; an MPA from Suffolk University as well as a Certificate in Non Profit Leadership from Boston University. He is a 2013 Alumni of The Partnership Inc. Next Generation Executive program. Ed also serves on the Meet Boston Workforce Community Advisory Board as well as the Advisory boards of the Greenlight Fund and Youth Guidance’s Becoming a Man (BAM) program. Ed is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc.

Listed skills include Social Networking, Public Speaking, and Community Outreach.