Deacon John Cord from the Archdiocesan Corrections Ministry and a powerful team met to discuss a collaboration to develop a comprehensive two-year reentry program. One year prior to release candidates would be identified. Barriers to successful reentry would be assessed, and a mentor would be introduced along with reentry preparation classes, including 2nd Chance Indiana's Jobs for Life. Safe, controlled, transitional housing would be ready upon release, and for the next year, reentrants would meet regularly with professional counselors, service providers, and more.

Pictured LtoR: Archdiocesan Corrections Ministry’s Deacon John Cord; Trusted Mentor’s Mentor Match Coordinator Ed Witulski; 2nd Chance Indiana’s Jim Cotterill and Scott Whiting, St. Vincent DePaul’s Andrea Leadford, Peter Zubler, Wendy Braun (not pictured), Marilyn Clerc and Jim Clerc.

One of the people who responded to last month’s 2nd Chance Indiana (2CI) newsletter request for inmate correspondents was Pastor Cindy Uhrich, of Lydick United Methodist Church in South Bend. She wrote, "For the past two years, I have been providing pastoral care to two inmates. This experience has changed me." During Advent she preached on Isaiah 64, about giving comfort to the captives, the brokenhearted, and those who mourn. She invited her congregation to consider answering 2CI's need for letter writers. That very day, five followers answered the call. Pastor Uhrich tags her emails with this phrase: Christ in me recognizes Christ in You. Need we say more? If you are so moved and would consider writing a lonely and often deserted inmate, please contact Sara Here.

Pictured: Pastor Cindy Uhrich of Lydick United Methodist Church in South Bend, Indiana.

Payday lenders continue to extract millions from Hoosiers through exorbitant interest rates and fines, reports the 2023 update from Indiana Community Action Poverty Institute. 2CI partner, Hoosiers for Responsible Lending, has consistently focused its efforts on the passage of a bill to place a 36% APR cap on small loans, but the cap has never been adopted. Instead, Indiana Legislators continue to allow these lenders to remain exempt from the state’s 72% APR criminal loan sharking statute and allows rates as high as 371%. Our Legislators’ support for PayDay loan companies is unexplainable, considering that In 2021, these lenders collected $29 million in finance charges on loans that averaged $386, when those same borrowers could have saved $26 million of those dollars if only a 36% APR cap had been codified. What is wrong with lawmakers who don’t consider the bankruptcies, the loss of homes, and the financial devastation these loans cause in communities throughout the state?

In 1996 a company named BackRub changed its name to Google. Google means "a million zeros." That says a lot about what Google would become. Blue Ribbon Sports became Nike, after the goddess of victory and Cadabra became Amazon, a name that truly defined its future.

As constant as it seems for corporations to change names, they didn’t invent the practice. According to the Bible, when God changed a person’s name and gave him a new one, much like the corporations’ aim, it was to establish a new identity. When he changed Abram's name to Abraham, meaning "father of a multitude" the childless man eventually lived up to the name.

When we changed our name to 2nd Chance Indiana, overnight things began to expand and the number of counties in which we were working quickly doubled. Read Nancy's post Here.