SOAR Celebrates Second Chance Act Funding!!
“At SOAR we believe in second chances,” asserts Executive Director Rebecca Ellenson. “Five years ago we had a vision—to create a safer Duluth by giving ex-offenders a second chance to live productive law-abiding lives.” The idea was to develop a sustainable, comprehensive, and coordinated re-entry program that would reduce recidivism. In 2005, that idea became a three year pilot project called CORP (Community Offender Re-entry Program).
SOAR developed CORP anticipating that the Second Chance Act would pass in Congress. When the Act finally passed, CORP had already existed for three years as a model program for a city its size. The pilot project results were very positive.
This October, the long hoped for renewable federal funding was secured! SOAR is one of the first nonprofits nationwide (of 507 applicants, 36 were selected) to be awarded the Second Chance Act Mentoring Grant. With this funding, CORP will hire more staff, expand into its own space across the hall, serve more clients and continue to help create a safer Duluth.
“SOAR is part of a national movement to stop the costly ‘catch and release’ cycle,” explains Ellenson. “We’re helping to create systems change in our country.”
CORP clients lavish high praise. “CORP is life changing!”
“If it wasn’t for CORP, I’d probably be back in jail.” “At CORP they boost your spirits and show you what’s possible.”
Now, with federal funding for the expansion of CORP, even more will be possible.
SOAR Career Solutions received an evaluation grant from The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA). CURA is a University of Minnesota applied research and technology center that connects faculty and students with community organizations and public institutions working on significant public policy issues in Minnesota. CORP sought CURA’s assistance to secure a graduate student researcher to develop a viable and sustainable evaluation component that would measure both outcome and impact as CORP expanded services.
University of Minnesota MSW student, Sara Carlson, was selected for the position. Ms. Carlson’s background is in working with under-represented people. Ms. Carlson began her CURA internship with us in February and completed it in May 2009.
Ms. Carlson worked closely with CORP staff in the development of an effective and efficient evaluation component for the program. Activities completed during this report period have included client interviews, development of termination criteria, development of standards of success and measurable client goals, and development of a CORP specific database system.
Read Ms. Carlson’s Executive Summary for the CURA project.
In March, 2006, SOAR Career Solutions received two major grants to establish a comprehensive prisoner re-entry program in Duluth. The Bush Foundation has awarded the organization with a three-year grant of $149,500. The Minnesota Office of Justice Programs has awarded approximately $161,000 over two years to establish the project.
Working together with several other strong area partners and with widespread community support, we will develop a replicable, sustainable model that provides career planning, job seeking skills training, placement, mentoring relationships, supportive services, and linkages to area resources for mental health, chemical health, housing, and other needs for 25 ex-offenders the first year, 40 the second, and 65 the third.
The project is a response to identified community needs and comes as a result of extensive organizational planning. By working with the Northeast Regional Correctional Center and Arrowhead Regional Corrections, we will be able to draw on the most current thinking in correctional practices and utilize their evidence-based assessment tools and evaluation methods. By working with Men As Peacemakers, we will be able to draw on their extensive experience in building strong mentoring programs and their innovative efforts with restorative justice practice. SOAR's own expertise lies in helping people with multiple, severe barriers find career success. By working with Lake Superior College, we draw on their extensive experience creating educational programs offered in correctional facilities, a commitment to serving the ex-offender population after release, and access to financial aid resources for our program participants.
The city of Duluth has a population of 85,734 and is located at the southern end of St. Louis County which has a total population of 198,136. In this medium-sized city, we have a county jail, a federal prison camp, a regional correctional center, and a work release facility.
In 2004, there were 272 ex-offenders released under supervision by Arrowhead Regional Corrections in the Duluth area from Northeast Regional Correctional Center (NERCC) and the State prison system alone. In addition, a large number of ex-offenders are released into the community who are not under supervision - persons who served their entire sentence and are not on probation or parole.
Currently, in St. Louis County there is minimal discharge planning prior to release. After release, probation is most often the only link for ex-offenders and due to the limited resources, extremely high caseloads, and the nature of the contact, little support or pro-active work is occurring there. Individual service providers in the community each start from scratch in trying to address the needs of ex-offenders with no coordination of services across agencies and little training in the specifics of ex-offender employment and transition services.
The released prisoners face multiple significant barriers including housing, food, clothing, mental health, transportation, ID, lack of education and training, childcare, custody issues, substance abuse and domestic violence. They are often unable to access assistance and support in overcoming those barriers.
Without assistance, the majority of ex-offenders return to criminal activity. Nationally, 60% of all ex-offenders re-offend within three years and 40% are re-incarcerated. NERCC is a minimum security facility with extensive rehabilitative programming. Even so, the recidivism rate for ex-offenders from NERCC is still high:
This project will serve the community at several levels:
Program participants will be ex-prisoners from NERCC who have been assessed with the validated risk tool, the LSI-R, for determining risk level and programming needs, whose risk level falls in the moderate range. The LSI-R is based on the social learning theory of behavior and identifies ten domains that have been consistently tied to recidivism. It is the basis for treatment plans during incarceration and will be used to establish transitional services provided in this transitional period and to make appropriate matches between ex-offenders and mentors.
The program will not work with violent offenders or sex-offenders. Enrollment will be voluntary. NERCC staff will recommend motivated individuals interested in the services to be provided. Most participants will be under supervision by probation or parole officers but that will not be a requirement of participation. By limiting our selection to prisoners released from NERCC for the first three years, we will be able to evaluate our results as compared with those from NERCC not involved in our program
Soar Career Solutions · 205 West 2nd Street · Suite 101 · Duluth, MN 55802
Phone: (218) 722-3126 · Fax: (218) 722-4617 · Email: info@soarcareers.org
This website was made possible through a grant from the Duluth/Superior Area Community Foundation. We are grateful for their support!