Employment SeminarsThe Harrisburg Family Life
Center offers employment case management and group employment readiness classes, both inside and outside the prison. The center
employment preparation and placement program employs a full-time, experienced job readiness specialist who prepares clients
to enter the world of professional employment and become responsible employees. The goal of the employment program is to teach
the community about all the tips and techniques one needs to know when they are looking for a job and have a criminal record.
Group classes are offered every week both in prison and outside. Clients will be initially referred to these classes,
and afterward will be eligible for one-on-one case management. Depending on the relationship formed between the client and
Employment Specialist, they may be eligible for job placement as well.
Business Start-up
ClassThe Family Life Center will launch business workshops in the summer of 2009 to teach a small class of eligible
clients the basics of starting and maintaining their own business. Self owned businesses allow greater flexibility,
the ability to work from home, and do not require discussing a criminal record or spotty work history. The class covers such
topics as identifying your skills, selling your product, expanding your business
Employer OutreachThe
Family Life Center will target employer outreach to increase the job placement options for our clients. The campaign will
kicked off in November, 2009 with an employer event "Alternative Workforce
Opportunities" geared at demonstrating to employers the financial and social benefits of hiring formerly
incarcerated people. We are currently developing a comprehensive resource guide for employers to be released in fall 2009
to make it as easy as possible to apply for financial incentives.
Family Reunification/Involvement The Harrisburg Family Reunification program focuses on the positives in non-traditional
families. Instead of trying to "fix" problems which naturally occur in family situations, our program will
assist families to identify strengths and "grow" them. Our basic philosophy is based in acceptance of diversity.
The Family Involvement Program provides counseling, case management and support services to low-income families to assist
them achieve self sufficiency.
Youth Leadership Development/Afterschool –Summer ProgramsYouth Leadership Development
provides the highest standards in traditional martial arts education. We focus on character
development and self-discipline in our students
and we have built a solid reputation as a leader in our area for youth and adult martial arts education. At the Harrisburg
Family Life Center we offer detailed instruction in a variety of arts including Taekwondo . In
each of these courses we always strive to achieve these Five Goals: - High Moral Character
- Self-Discipline
- Self-Identity
- Self-Defense
- Physical Fitness
Transitional Living Center For clients who require additional time for achieving sufficient independence to secure
permanent housing, The Harrisburg Family life center provides transitional living programs offering:
- Six Months to Two Years of Transitional
Housing
- Food Services
- Case Management
- Mandatory Financial Literacy Program
- Full
Range of Support Services
The Harrisburg Community Wellness Center The centerpiece of this holistic approach is a wellness
center, in which program participants, who are often themselves victims, can begin the healing process. A centerpiece of the program is its wellness center, whose mission is to reintegrate the
fragmented lives of its entering clients, by helping them realign themselves, spiritually, physically and emotionally. This
holistic environment promotes structured healing, through self-discovery, self-assessment, self-esteem, self-assertion, and,
finally, self-empowerment. Therapeutic emphasis is placed on preventative health, physical fitness, yoga training and organic
nutrition, to center the client, as he/ she seeks to emerge from a life of victimization and reactivity, to one of proactive
independence. An on-site gym, yoga facility, beauty shop and health food store are available to assist her, as she manages
her journey back to wholeness.
HISTORY AND MISSION The mission of The
Harrisburg Family Life Center is to intervene and empower women and do this with compassion and professionalism. The
Harrisburg Family Life Center will do this through its Affordable Family and transitional housing program, life management
skills training, case management and substance abuse-mental health prevention and intervention services, family building skill
learning, childcare and vocational training. The U.S. prison population, which is nearly 2 million,
represents one-quarter of the world’s incarcerated population and carries an annual social cost of $41 billion. While
only 7% of these inmates are female, over 1,139,000 women in the U.S. are under the care, custody or control of some form
of correctional agency — 91% of these offenders are in the community, as probationers or parolees, and over 70% are
parents of 1.6 million affected children. Tragically, while over 90% of women offenders commit non-violent crimes and 60%
of these women are themselves the victim of reported abuse, the risk factors associated with failed rehabilitation are numerous,
resulting in a recidivism rate of 52% — moreover, the children of these women are, themselves, five times more likely
than their peers to someday be incarcerated. While several publicly and privately sponsored programs exist to facilitate
the transition of these women back to their families and to the community, most of these resources are narrowly focused, with
few programs reporting broad success. The Harrisburg Family Life Center intends to squarely address this
perplexing challenge, by providing a fully integrated, holistic solution that focuses on self-discovery and the power of parenting
to bring these individuals back to the mainstream — based in the Harrisburg Community, this not-for-profit enterprise
will offer an array of family reunification and comprehensive aftercare services that are calculated to break the cycle
of individual despair and destruction that plagues these women, their children and society. Approximately 39 % of our clients are homeless
new releases, 34% utilize shelters, 14% seek temporary shelter at the house of a friend or relative, 11% other and 2% rent
their own apartment. The majority of our clients are at or below the poverty level guidelines. The majority of
our clients seek employment at labor halls, which do not require pre-employment drug screening. Many of our clients
have been employed at times in their life, but now indicate domestic violence, drug abuse and mental health issues as the
cause of their current dilemma. In the past ten years, there has been increasing documentation of the growing incarceration of mothers, as
well as of the devastating impact this has had on family structures. Department of Justice research shows that 63% of white
women and 67% of African American and Hispanic women incarcerated in state prisons have minor children. Many of the
children separated from their mothers due to incarceration will only interact with their mothers in correctionalenvironments
or through letters or telephone calls, while others will have no contact for many years. Such interference with the parent-child
bond will have a serious impact on the psychological and emotional well-being of mothers and children, which will require
significant attention during a mother’s reentry process. The lifetime ban
significantly affects women’s ability to reestablish environments
in which the parent-child relationship can flourish.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE The Harrisburg Family Life Center is an Outreach Ministry of the
Another Chance Ministry Network. The ACMN Board of Directors governs the Harrisburg Family Life Center. The Board, which
is composed of 3 executive members and 8 advisory members, meets on a monthly basis. The Board of Directors is responsible
for the overall management, including, strategic planning, program approval prior to implementation, formulating and amending
policies, fiscal expenditures, etc. The daily organizational administrative operations are delegated to the Executive
Director, who reports directly to the Board of Directors. Trained and skilled staff who have consistently demonstrated
that they are capable of engaging and involving minority and high-risk populations in available services provides direct client
services.
NEEDS AND TARGET
POPULATION The Harrisburg Family Life Center has learned and documented within the context of this proposals
that parolees who do not have a support network to provide continued shelter for them and their children become at risk
of homelessness. Others, in desperate need of an additional source of income, may cohabit with an abusive partner or engage
in illegal activity leading to toxic family environments where substance abuse, violence, and neglect are daily occurrences,
thereby leading to the 52% recidivism rate currently exhibited in women ex-offenders within the State of Georgia. Moreover,
the children of these women are five times more likely than their peers to someday be incarcerated. Children who are
exposed to stressful family environments have been found to be more likely to perform poorly in school and experience emotional
and behavioral problems. An Urban Institute study found that 31% of children living under stressful family conditions had
low levels of educational engagement, compared to 17% of other children. The researchers also found that 15% of children
aged 6 to 11 who lived in stressful family environments had high levels of emotional and behavioral problems, whereas only
4% of other children experienced similar problems. Similar findings were found among adolescents as well. Children and adolescents
who do not receive the necessary support to develop into healthy, positive, and productive social participants are likely
to engage in anti-social behavior harmful to society. A study conducted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention (OJJDP) shows a link between ex-incarcerated women in dysfunctional, abusive home environments and the maltreatment
of children, low academic achievement, mental health problems, drug use, teenage pregnancy, and delinquency. OJJDP’s
research shows that children raised by ex-incarcerated women in low-income, abusive and/or dysfunctional family environments
are more likely to be victims of maltreatment. Denying mothers aftercare resources, vocations skills and building their
empowerment beliefs at a time they may most need them may prove to be exceedingly punitive to the children for whom they care.
Since incarcerated people have limited educational opportunities while in prison, few parolees will have the necessary
qualifications to successfully compete in the labor market immediately upon their release from prison. Although correctional
institutions have increased the number of general education programs (i.e. adult basic education, GED, high school) available
to prisoners since the 1970s, as of 2002 only 52% of correctional facilities for parolees offered post-secondary education.
Given the varying barriers parolees face as a result of poor employment skills, criminal histories, and the racialized
and gendered labor market, women should be afforded the time and assistance needed following a criminal conviction to build
marketable skills. This requires vocational training in areas where women with a criminal record are not automatically excluded
and challenges to such exclusions, as well as training for the types of jobs that provide living wages along with employment
benefits. The availability of transitional assistance while women engage in substantive vocational training ensures that they
are able to house and feed themselves and their children as they devote themselves full-time to gaining employment skills
which will enable them to eventually become self-sufficient. For many women, vocational training may be insufficient to reach
self-sufficiency, and increased access to educational opportunities for women, who are returning to their communities may
be necessary. The problem is documented, stated and proven. The answer is the Harrisburg Family Life Center.
The Center offers solutions, helps heal lives, begin new dreams and reaches into the population that is quietly desperate
and helps turn them into confident and empowered citizens. We foster improved self-esteem, self-worth, and self-efficacy
and promote healthy boundary setting for the additional individuals reached with the additional funding. Drug
usage, hopelessness, mental illness, low self-worth, loneliness, and a general lack of empowerment for women are but a few
of the contributing factors to their current ex-incarcerated status, substance abuse, domestic violence and mental health
issues which have had significant behavioral health consequences in their lives. Fear and hopelessness are overwhelming
among women who are powerless in dealing with all the issues mentioned above.
