Legendary Legacies receives $1.3M to support formerly-incarcerated men
Photo | Matt Wright
Ron Waddell, with sons Joshua and Isaiah, has been building the nonprofit Legendary Legacies, helping men ages 17 to 24 become productive citizens. He first started working on the nonprofit as an employee of the Worcester Community Action Council and now does it full time.
The relatively new Worcester nonprofit Legendary Legacies announced Friday it received a $1.3-million grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Bureau of Substance Abuse, in a major expansion of its programing.
The nonprofit, founded in 2018, is focused on providing mentorship and life skills development for young men of color. It was one of six awardees of the grant in the state.
Funding will go toward the Legendary Links program, which assists Black and Latino men returning home from incarceration and struggling with substance abuse disorder.
The program partners with the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office and Worcester House of Corrections to support 50 formerly-incarcerated men for the six months prior and six months after their release. Legendary Legacies plans to hire five new staff to run the new program.
The $1.3 million marks significant revenue growth for Legendary Legacies, which was co-founded by Ron Waddell while he was working at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation. In the summer of 2020, Waddell said the nonprofit's budget is about $97,000 annually. In March, Legendary received a $125,000 donation from the United Way of Central Massachusetts to further cement its funding and create a youth-led civic engagement academy to increase voter registration and turnout among 18-25 year olds.
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