Hand2Heart DC & Other CBO’s
With two friends and former DOC colleagues, I launched my first nonprofit, Hand2Heart DC. Launching a new venture is always fraught with excitement and a certain amount of angst, even when you know, rock solid, that it’s meant to be. Paul, Borden, and I aren’t new at this work. We’re pros at designing and implementing programs that meet the needs of incarcerated individuals and returning citizens. For Borden and Paul, they’ve lived those experiences, so understanding what’s needed and how difficult it can be is a driving force. For me, it’s the idea of paying forward all of the privilege I was born into, my own lived experiences that included open doors of opportunity, and understanding how grit is learned and can be taught. All three of us have a huge capacity for compassion and also understand the moment when you can’t help people and need to turn them loose, hoping they come back to you or find what they truly need elsewhere. It’s a fine line that we all walk with people we care about.
Hand2Heart DC provides services to returning citizens, including employment assistance, workforce prep, digital literacy, cognitive behavior therapy, substance use support, and transition services. We also provide community education about reentry and a bank of speakers for groups who need them.
We’re one in a sea of community based organizations that provide similar or other services to returning citizens. DC is rich with such groups. Most communities have them. Sometimes they come in the form of religious organizations, and others are nonprofits, like us. Some times, the problem is that folks don’t know where to find those helpers, or groups are spread out across a city and not convenient to access. Too frequently, organizations claim they provide services but aren’t all that helpful. Most often, there aren’t enough resources to help people in the robust way that’s most needed. By resources, I mean money. As an ecosystem, we tend to spend our dollars on incarceration, with little investment in preventive measures or aftercare. Our incarceration rate would no doubt be lower if we did.
I have met and worked with some amazing CBO's throughout the years. They can be the lifeblood of a pre-release program as well as for reentry. With limited amount of money for salaries, prisons and jails can tap into CBO’s to provide much needed programming. By being selective (i.e., intentionally choosing partners to further your stated and written vision/mission), monitoring, and holding CBO partners accountable for results (yes, you need to collect data on every group that works with your students), you can expand your “staff” and programming…for free! We love that word, don’t we? Always draft an MOU with CBO partners, including metrics and outcomes, and when they don’t meet them, cut them loose. Sometimes working with community groups can get a little political, so having an MOU keeps everybody honest. We expect X, and if you don’t produce X, regretfully, we’ll have to find a group who can. Diplomacy, always, but holding feet to the fire isn’t a bad thing. You’ll have to live up to your end of the bargain as well.
And always, always, avoid CBOs and organizations that want to come in and save people. Nobody needs saving. They just need compassion, care, and opportunities.
We’ll no doubt talk more about Hand2Heart DC in the coming days. Weeks. Years. Unfortunately, I can’t see the numbers of incarcerated citizens dwindling significantly in the near future. It’d be nice to see more coming home, though, and in DC, we’ll be there for them.
Is it just me or does it feel like Spring is sneaking up on us? I hope it is wherever you’re having your Sunday morning coffee today.
Cheers!
P.S. If you want to chat about anything reentry, or how to partner with CBO's, or how you think Hand2Heart DC can move the needle, contact me!
