Minutes from 3/31/09 Meeting

2009-04-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

Meeting Notes for the Greater Essex County Reentry Providers' Network
March 31, 2009

I personally want to thank all who attended, and thanks, Lynette and Jenny, for typing up minutes from the meeting. Please take a look at the notes below. Please call me if you have further questions or concerns. Omar K. Shabazz 973-643-2205 x218

The next meeting will be April 28th, hosted by Integrity House.

Members in attendance:
Nichele Wilson (NJISJ)
Rasheed Jackson (NJISJ)
Lamont Porterfield (NJISJ)
Anibal Alvelo (La Casa)
Donna Morgan (Goodwill)
Nkosi Remy (Goodwill)
Kevin Kurdizel (ECC)
Yury Tarnavskyj (Integrity House)
Robert Parkinson (Integrity House)
Warren Thompson (OAR)

Pat Clark (AFSC)
Lynette Marsh (AFSC)
Omar Shabazz (AFSC)
Johnnie Green (CIC)
Abdul Wali (Anchor of Hope)

TOPICS SPOKEN ON

"What's New In Your Agency"

Nichelle Wilson (New Careers) introduced Lamont Porterfield, their new Case Manager

OAR, La Casa Renaissance Center were awarded monies
OAR is preparing for money program development

Anibal Alvelo (La Casa) is having a job fair at Essex County, May 14th. About 80 employers with be there. (Jacqueline Johnson from La Casa will report how and who is hiring our clients.) Anibal also invited Network members to give him any information they'd like distributed inside prisons, because he is doing pre-release workshops.

Kevin Kurdziel has a list of potential employers to hire our clients.

-Kevin spoke about Project Reconnect and the agencies involved (Goodwill, recruiters -- from Verizon, etc)
Kevin reports how job fairs are not usually effective for the ex-offender population -- some recruiters don't consider ex-offenders for jobs.

Pat and Omar (AFSC): Preparation for housing, “Building permanent housing for those coming home”

Omar discussed job training that might be on the horizon:
-Tunnel Jobs: NJ Transit in conjunction with Local 147 is offering tunnel worker training through the Local 147 Tunnel Wokers Training Fund and Application. For more information, refer to this website (click "training" tab).
-Baseball Stadium: Need to follow up on Bear Stadium Applications (March 25 – 26)

Omar: "collectively can we network with an employer?"

A general discussion was held about Essex County College and projects besides Project Reconnect: Wise Women's Center and FORGE. Warren mentioned the work Darcella Sessoms is doing with FORGE (Department of Corrections Re-entry).

Anival: Would like to be able to pick employer and work with them and not set the client up for failure. We should try to sell an individual rather than the entire population.

We discussed that Desmoines, Iowa has a successful reentry program for getting jobs for ex-offenders. We should take a look at what they're doing that's working.

Warren asked, "Can we build a One-Stop within ourselves?"

Re-Visit mission: In your opinion, what is our purpose?

Kevin (ECC-Single Stop-Next Stop) –sharing best practices, what’s new – blog is great

Warren (OAR)– Strength in unity, funding opportunities for network, no clear cut definition

Lynette (AFSC) – develop a chain link and keep it going, get flow going and maintain it

Robert (Integrity House) – eliminate competition and come up with solutions

New Careers -- employment, resources available

Johnnie Green – project coordinator for re-entry with CIC (Churches in Cooperation, Inc.), also does mentoring.

Nkosi Remy (Goodwill) – get everybody's mission, re-entry focus “I want to be your resource to keep them employed” Also does mentoring.

Lamont Porterfield, LCSW (New Careers), Case Manager

-he discussed best practices

-mental health not being addressed

-some clients have no intentions of getting a job
-Diagnosis from prison: people don't always come home with the right information to get the care they need

LaCasa – Want to build a one-stop; be comfortable with reliable, ultimate services

Goodwill – I want to be a group of people that use all part to be a whole

Identifying Key Objectives: "What are your strengths?"

Nichelle – network has a variety of skills and services; take time to tap into each other services

Warren – OAR has a contract with Bergen Pines Medical Center--intake for alcohol, opiate detox
Warren mentioned that we should all be apprehensive about revealing mental status (sharing with other agencies), discussed the importance of Ethics, Confidentiality

People leaving prison have only 2 weeks of medication for mental health, then they're on their own

OAR does Van pick up for detox (call for more information):

Monday: Bethel Worldwide Outreach: 65 Pierce Street, Newark (973 787-2214)

Tuesday in front of OAR (1064 Clinton Ave., Irvington) (973 373-0100)

Robert: Inegrity House does substance abuse treatment

Yury – Integrity House Recovery, Reentry Corrections and Parole
Continuum of care
NJ State Prison
Seeking support and sharing what he’s doing – recovery support system
Can we do some simple things and get something done collectively?
Remember we’re working with human beings
All want job training and readiness

Nkosi said Goodwill's strength is mentoring.
Grace Reform – House of Hope, for men and women

New Careers' strengths: Job Readiness, training, healthcare, childcare, housing

Anibal: La Casa does pre-release programs inside of prisons. If you'd like to have information distributed, Anibal can make that information available to the prisoners.

Interfaith Hospitality Network, S. Orange, NJ (no Medicaid; 60 day stay)

Open Discussion Topics:

Lamont from New Careers spoke about developing a providers network resource guide for re-entry (with a quarterly review, and updated contacts)

Contracts: We want to help people who are willing to help themselves, so let's develop a contract for our clients (mutual respect, responsibilities, etc)

Clusters of specialized services--continuing to strengthen our information base by having network members who work in similar areas share information and work together on issues, reporting back to the main body

Potential Clusters: Physical and Mental Health, Substance Abuse, Employment, Housing, Mentoring, Spirituality/Faith, Legal, Education, etc.

Upcoming Events:

Integrity House – will host next meeting April 28
We will try to get Erin Healy from the Corporation for Supportive Housing to discuss housing opportunities and the Mayor's Task Force to End Homelessness in Newark.

La Casa – will host May 26th

New Careers – will host June 23rd

2009-03-25T13:51:00.000-07:00

Dear Providers:

Here is the latest addition to our blog. Please copy this address and password wherein your organization can access this blog at your convenience. The next Provider's meeting is March 31, 2009, 10:00 a.m. at the American Friends Service Committee 89 Market Street, Newark, New Jersey 07102, 6th Floor, 973-643-1924.

The web address to access the blog is http://reentryproviders.blogspot.com/ the user name: reentryproviders and the password: greateressex

If you have any items you would like to add to the upcoming agenda please forward them to me via blog or oshabazz@afsc.org

Please sign the post at the bottom of each entry to acknowledge the sender. I would like to thank our volunteer Jenny Davis who has made this blog available for us.

Omar Shabazz, Chair, Greater Essex County Reentry Providers' Network
AFSC Healing and Transformative Justice

Welcome to the Reentry Providers' Blog

2009-03-25T13:09:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome. The idea behind this blog was to create a space for the Greater Essex County Reentry Providers' Network to post meeting minutes, upcoming events, subcommittee notes, and other announcements (and keep them in one place, rather than in a string of emails). Hopefully, the blog will be a useful resource as well as a place to get some discussion going between meetings.

All of the Provider's Network members can use this username ("ReentryProviders") to sign in and post to the blog (the password will be emailed over the Providers' Network list). In the comment section, anyone can comment on a post. If you'd like to sign in with your gmail.com account instead, that's easy to do (we just have to add you as a blog author - just let us know).

-Omar Shabazz

Greater Essex County Reentry Providers Network

Minutes from 3/31/09 Meeting

Welcome to the Reentry Providers' Blog