Summit focuses on “second-chance” opportunities
By Toriano L. Porter
For the St. Louis American
“We know from experience if former prisoners can’t find work or a home or help, they are much more likely to commit crimes and return to prison. America is the land of the second chance and when the gates of prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.”
– George W. Bush, 2004 State of the Union Address
Terrell Whitener, managing partner of Productive Workforce Development, said the hardest part about scheduling a keynote speaker for the first-ever Missouri Offender Workforce Summit was choosing a speaker who would respond to the organization’s request in a timely manner.
Most guest speakers, Whitener said, usually take between two to three months to accept or reject potential speaking engagements, but in the case of Alexa Eggleston, the response was almost instantaneous.
“I sent her an email about what we were trying to accomplish, and within eight minutes she had replied she would do it,” Whitener said of Eggleston, the Legal Action Center’s Director of National Policy.
“She spends about half her time advocating for people she doesn’t know, so she is definitely committed to what we’re doing.”
The Legal Action Center, based in Washington, D.C., is an advocacy group that focuses on improving federal policy and government relations on drug abuse and addiction and criminal justice issues.
The Workforce Summit, held Tuesday and Wednesday at the Doubletree Hotel in the Westport area of St. Louis County, focused on organizations that provide training, education and other opportunities for ex-offenders to reenter the workforce.
“One of the few social problems we have the answer to is reentry into the workforce,” Whitener said. “If they (ex-offenders) have a job, chances are they won’t go back to prison. When you get through with it, it all comes down to having a job.”
Eggleston addressed a crowd of more than 100 administrators from social organizations like PWD; the Father’s Support Center, St. Louis; Office of Probation and Parole; Missouri Re-Entry Taskforce; ARCHS; and the Division of Workforce Development. She lauded them for their work helping a segment of the population that is all but forgotten when it comes to second chances and opportunities.
“We have an administration that is intent on reducing the national deficit, so funding is scarce,” Eggleston told the group, chiding President Bush and his State of the Union Address.
“The federal government doesn’t think re-entry is their problem, because most of the ex-offenders are from state prisons. Bush wants the states to be responsible for (re-entry training and funding). He should just put the money where is mouth is.”
Chester A. Deanes Jr., director of community relations for Father’s Support Center, St. Louis said a majority of fathers who enter the center’s program are ex-offenders. He gave an brief overview of his center’s mission to the group.
“We are out here everyday to bring (ex-offenders) to a higher level,” Deanes said, reminding the group that the fight to help improve ex-offenders lives’ is an ongoing battle.
“In order to affect social change, it’s going to take all of us.”