January 11, 2024
Upon release, individuals who served their time in the U.S. criminal justice system face the daunting task of rebuilding their life. Even former felons committed to turning their life around still face significant challenges – challenges that lead too many down the path of recidivism. When you need income to find a place to live, and you can’t find a job without an address, there’s no wonder why many former felons recidivate.
Fortunately, organizations like ARCH (Accompanying Returning Citizens with Hope) reentry and the Vincentian Ohio Action Network (VOAN) are helping to get that job and take those first steps towards integrating back into society. ARCH Reentry was launched in 2017 and focuses on helping justice-involved citizens lead productive, positive lives after their departure from the criminal justice system by helping them achieve gainful employment. VOAN has been around since 2014, and provides a vehicle for community organizing focused on addressing root causes of poverty and marginalization.
A testament to their exceptional work, both have been the recipients of federal grants towards their missions. ARCH received the EPA Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving Program (EJCPS) and VOAN received the Department of Labor’s Women in Apprenticeship in Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) grant.
We spoke with ARCH executive director Wendy Tarr about the barriers faced by those returning from incarceration, what ARCH does to help justice involved individuals, and how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Labor (DOL) grants will aid in their mission.
Wendy Tarr
Founder and Executive Director of Vincentian Ohio Action NetworkARCH is trying to help address these problems at the source. Along with the training programs that will go on before release, ARCH advocates for those freshly released. “We can vouch for people coming out” she went on, “Tell them ‘here’s our experience working with them’ and setting up interviews while prepping employers for issues that may come up.”
We are also thrilled that Wendy is a featured panelist on Day 2 of our 2024 Strategy Strategy Summit! The theme that day is “Stories of Hope: ReImagining Appalachian Communities with Federal Climate Resources.” We’ll hear from Appalachian community leaders about how federal climate infrastructure resources are helping to set the stage for a brighter future for our communities and workers in the Ohio River Valley region of Appalachia. How can we use incremental successes to communicate the extent of new opportunities for the region? What’s the story we need to be telling and why does it matter?
EPA EJCPS (Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving Program)
The 2023 Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem Solving (EJCPS) Program grant will go towards ARCH’s efforts to help those returning from prison with the first steps towards creating sustainable lives after release. Impact Solar, a collaboration between Columbus Partnership and Community Renewable Energy, provides low-cost clean energy to Columbus-area nonprofits. Impact Solar is aiming high, looking to place 75 sites throughout central Ohio at nonprofit facilities, Government buildings, and schools. Impact will complete assessments of the property, install, and maintain the panels at no cost to the owners of the sites. The end goal of the initiative is not only to provide cheap energy, but also to reduce 7,000,000 metric tons of carbon emissions over the next two decades and provide enough energy to power 85,000 homes each year.
In order to accomplish this, you’ll need a competitive workforce. Over the next three years, ARCH will provide 75 individuals with the training, soft skills, employer linkage, and soft skills necessary to succeed in the solar industry. ARCH Reentry will work hand-in-hand with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to make sure that these individuals will be ready to meet the needs of the solar industry and that the solar industry can provide for their new workers.
WANTO (Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations)
Through the WANTO program, the Department of Labor aims to increase the number of women in registered apprenticeship programs. The Vincentian Ohio Action Network (VOAN) received $714,518 in federal grants towards their efforts to help formerly incarcerated women with a pathway to income after having taken part in training programs while incarcerated. “In prison, people are learning all sorts of trades,” Tarr points out. “They even learn how to build houses – soup to nuts…they come out with 15 years of experience, but there’s not a bridge to employment.”
VOAN and ARCH will use the funding from the WANTO program to build those bridges, coordinating with organizations like COWITS (Central Ohio Women in the Trades) to help individuals know about opportunities immediately after being released.
It’s hard enough navigating the trades, let alone navigating them after coming out of the correction’s system. Thankfully, with the help of the funds from the EPA’s EJCPS and Department of Labor’s WANTO programs, Vincentian Ohio Action Network and ARCH Reentry is in an excellent position to help the justice-involved of Central Ohio build sustainable, prosperous lives for themselves and their communities.