Apparently, plenty of folks do need a ride, and Volumod is grateful for the help to keep their lines moving and their shifts full. Transportation services are just one of the kinds of active support functions necessary to help reentrants walk the path to a normal life after incarceration. More on transportation Here.

Six Inmate Correspondents Are Needed Now!

Writing to a person who is incarcerated can be the most dynamic response to the call on your life that you can possibly imagine.

Not only are you speaking friendship and faith into the life of a person who needs your encouragement, but those letters from prison are also a blessing to the correspondents as well. Who needs your advice? Your humor? For whom can you answer questions? Or share your faith? The answer to all these questions, is the person who is waiting for your letter, and that introduction of your interest in them is your response to Hebrews 13:3.

Please email Sara for all the information, instructions, and the connection you need to contact a person who is patiently waiting for your emails, or written letters. Or, consider volunteering HERE. We need you, but they need you more. And, we'll help you every step of the way, so you feel safe, comfortable, and strong in this important, life-changing work.

Indiana's Department of Workforce Development leaders, Commissioner Richard Paulk and Chief Workforce Officer Katie Rounds, met with Jim Cotterill and Scott Whiting from 2nd Chance Indiana this month to expand opportunities for folks coming out of incarceration. Said Jim, "It’s wonderful to meet with like minded people who realize that there is an often overlooked talent pool that would love the opportunity to contribute to society. When we put a reentrant to work, everybody wins. The employer, the reentrant, their family members, the local community, and the State of Indiana." However, the most important victory of all is the life that is changed for the better. More on Indiana DWD, Here.

Linda Webb, of Unchained Ministry has been working with reentrants for decades. Her church in Ellettsville, near Bloomington, IN, is deeply involved with connecting folks with transitional housing and jobs in Monroe and Adams County specifically, and to some extent across the state.

There are areas of need that 2nd Chance Indiana (2CI) can help them to fill, and Unchained Ministries can assist us by adding more employment opportunities to the 2ndChanceIN.com website.

With so much need in every county for reentrants, relationships with boots-on-the-ground county ministries are building a stronger state-wide 2nd Chance Indiana alliance, that is creating a new paradigm for transitioning from incarceration in Indiana. We look forward to more involvement with other dedicated people like Linda from every county! More on Unchained Ministry's good works Here.

I just got a call from a man named Neal. He was recently released from incarceration and is eager to get a job. Most people hear the words “criminal record” and have a pre-conceived idea of a dangerous person, someone nothing like them.

But most people in prison are not lifers, most are not dangerous, and most are very much like us. Yet they are left out in the cold by so many who might give them a second chance. I could tell that Neal is smart and nice, and I know from experience that there is more hope, goodness, optimism, and energy in most reentrants than they will ever be given the opportunity to use.

They want to pour all that into a new life and the lives of their children and families. They want to work, pay their way, stay clean, and get along. They don’t all make it, but a lot of them can and do, with just a realistic amount of help. Without that help, recidivism will continue to be over 65%. Read Nancy’s latest post Here!