ACTION starts new program to help former inmates

Staff report

youngstown

A new program to help people who just got out of prison find work will open its center in downtown Youngstown on Nov. 26.

Pat Kerrigan, a volunteer for the Alliance For Congregational Transformation In Our Neighborhoods, said the group received two grants to help pay for the project, which has been in the planning stages for the last six months.

Preparations are being made for office space for the Home For Good Re-Entry Referral Center at 20 Federal Place downtown to house the program, which Kerrigan, who is the volunteer executive director, said would help released inmates find the help they need to get employment and other services to get on their feet.

He said ACTION will not be placing those inmates into jobs, but would be a sort of one-stop agency that would be able to refer them to whatever help they need.

“Our focus is not to provide services, but be a clearinghouse,” Kerrigan said.

ACTION would partner with groups and providers such as the Ohio Adult Parole Authority, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership, the Rev. Willie Peterson and the New Birth Project, the Oak Hill Collaborative, Flying High, Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, Community Corrections Association and others.

The center aims to reduce recidivism rates among men, women, and youths. The center has received grants from The Youngstown Foundation, the city and its Community Development Agency.

Kerrigan, who served time for corruption crimes committed as a Youngstown Municipal Court judge in the 1990s, said part of the reason he likes the project is that he based it on his experiences when he returned from jail.

He said he was able to make a living and readjust because he had a strong support system, but he wants to do something for people in his situation who do not have the system.

“There are many people who do not have that good fortune, and I want to help them,” Kerrigan said.

Kerrigan said the inmate re-entry problem issue has been a problem in the area for years, and ACTION and other groups have been working to try and help those people.

He said ACTION is not competing with other agencies but is trying to make sure the right person gets the right help they need from the right agency.

“We’ll point people in the right direction,” Kerrigan said. “We’ll try to fit the person in the best way.”

Dr. M. Rose Taylor is president of the Re-Entry Home for Good board.

For information, contact Rose Carter, director of ACTION, by calling 330-782-7433, or Kerrigan, director of the Re-Entry Center, by calling 330-518-5884.