As a Protégé in Bowen’s Leadership Challenge Workshop, the Community Project Challenge portion of the year-long leadership program was daunting at first mention. The Community Project Challenge requires each Protégé to lead a major community service project. This requires the identification of an appropriate opportunity, the organization and scheduling of the effort, the recruitment of help to accomplish set goals, the execution of the project and finally the reporting back to the group of what the effort accomplished. In the course of our workshop sessions, it became clear to me that I had been ‘waiting for permission’ to spend time helping in the community – there was and is always plenty to do at work and at home! But shortly after the challenge was announced, the opportunity called.
I attended the Black Expo in Indianapolis, during which a gentleman named Rudy Hightower spoke about ‘the pink elephant in the room’ – ex-offenders in the community and the challenge of their re-entry into society. He continued to say that there were 60,000 abandoned homes in Indianapolis that could be fixed up, while at the same time training this growing population attempting to re-enter the community without life or work skills.
The seed was planted!
It took three weeks for me to find Rudy, and by the time we connected, we each had our own plans for the vision that Rudy had laid out during his presentation at Black Expo. We compared PowerPoints, realized we were on the same page, and got to work.
Our Pilot Program ran 3 weeks, and we learned a lot. We learned that acquiring basic life skills (communication, conflict resolution and goal setting, to name a few) are critical for these candidates, as most have never had any exposure to these necessary tools of life – let alone role models who demonstrate them. We also learned that including abandoned homes in the mix was much too complicated for a program just beginning. We focused our efforts on teaching basic life skills in a classroom setting for the 3 week pilot program. The program was a tremendous success, and we decided to move forward, improving the curriculum and looking for a way to incorporate construction training in future sessions of the program.
We named the program 2nd Chance.
Around this time, community funding was made available for the type of ex-offender training we were providing. 2nd Chance partnered with a major national construction association, adding basic construction skills to our program. We applied for funding and were accepted into the program.
The results are extremely encouraging.
Two and a half years later we have graduated over 280 students. 200 are employed in construction, and more than 25 are employed in other vocations. Our rate of recidivism is under 1% (2 students) vs. the overall county rate of 77%.
We recently graduated our first class from Fort Wayne, IN, and the Department of Corrections is working with us diligently to begin working earlier in the re-entry process and throughout the state’s correctional facilities. We are in the process of expanding to include other vocational training, with building maintenance first on the list.
Perhaps the pinnacle of community excitement came when Scott Newman, Director of Public Safety in Indianapolis, called to include us in a press conference when Tony Dungy announced his support for the Mayor in his efforts with ex-offender re-entry into the workplace and the community.
We are now a registered Not-for-Profit corporation, and our board of directors is helping us continue to expand our efforts in this exciting venture.
One thing is very clear. The vision of Bowen’s leadership to encourage community involvement has resulted in 280 young gentlemen now having a second chance at life – which directly affects them, their families, and their communities.
Thank you to the leaders at Bowen for making this difference!
(Pictured L to R): Scott Newman, Kris Bowen, Tony Dungy, Michelle Baldwin, and Rudy Hightower at Colts Training Facility, July 2008. Kris, Michelle and Rudy are Board Members of 2nd Chance Solutions, Inc.
