Positive Transitioning November/December 2019 - The Giving Issue

The Giving Issue

Why We Give Back Delaware State Resources

In This Issue End of the Year Issue November/December 2019

Letter from the Executive Director

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Word of the month

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Delaware State Resources

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Meet Amanda Knight: Why Do I Do What I Do?

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Meet Ericka Foster: Giving Back

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Meet Maggie

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What is Your Gratitude Tool? Meet Isabella Dos Santos

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Letter from the Executive Director The end of the year is the perfect time for reflection. 2019 has been a great year for Positive Transitioning, as well as the magazine. We’ve brought on Ericka Foster as editor, along with Maggie Allen and Amanda Knight. Along with Isabella Dos Santos, they have worked to create a magazine that offers useful and interesting stories for you each month.

So in this issue, we give you a chance to meet them, and to understand why they are inspired. Some of the ladies go so fired up, they used some “feisty words”.

The end of the year is also about gratitude.

Isabella dos Santos talks about gratitude and how it is important in her life.

We are grateful for our volunteers, our staff, and our readers, and we hope you have enjoyed the magazine in 2019, and we look forward to 2020.

Sincerely, Porche Proffit

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Masthead and Contributors Editor-in-Chief, Porche Proffit Editor, Ericka Foster

Contributors Writer, Maggie Allen Writer, Amanda Knight Nutrition and dietician Isabella Dos Santos

Check out the Positive Transitioning App on the Google Play Store! https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app.positivetransitioning Check out our Radio Show! https://www.radionomy.com/en/radio/omertaradio

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serv¡ice the action of helping or doing work for someone.

The service you do for others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth. ~Muhammad Ali

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Delaware State Services  Delaware Center for Justice dcjustice.org This organization offers a reintegration services program in partnership with the department of corrections that provides housing assistance, job assistance, mental health services, and life skills instruction.  Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. declasi.org/ With locations in Wilmington, Dover, and Georgetown , this organization provides free legal services for people who can’t afford it.  Delaware Volunteer Legal Services, Inc. dvls.org/ This organization offers free legal services to those who meet federal poverty income standards.  The Wilmington HOPE Commission wilmhope.org The Wilmington HOPE Commission works with its partners to provide social services for individuals re-entering society, including the Winner’s Circle which celebrates their accomplishments.  Rehoboth Community Resource Center rehobothcommunitycenter.org The Community Resource Center serves as a centralized location to help meet the needs of Eastern Sussex County residents facing crisis.  Society of St. Vincent de Paul svdpwilm.org/#/transitions/works This faith-based provides housing, clothing, transportation and employment guidance for individuals re-entering society .  The Way Home twhprogram.org/ The Way Home provides case management services – including job search assistance, transportation assistance, and support groups for men being released from prison.

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Meet Amanda Knight: Why Do I Do What I Do? I am very blessed in life, but I’ve been through a lot, too. In 2015 I lost my daughter and my father in the span of 7 weeks. I felt angry, sad, and overwhelmed. How was I supposed to feel whole again? I took a step back and I thought about what I truly wanted out of my life. I have a wonderful husband and five amazing kids, and I know that I am lucky. I also know that despite the tragedies I have been through, there are people out there still going through their own trials. What I wanted from life was to make a difference to others.

After enrolling in school, I found that I really enjoyed writing. I decided that I could use writing as a way to help others. As someone who is passionate about human rights and humanitarian efforts, I know there are many worthy causes to support. I chose this one because I, like the amazing people I work with in this organization, believe in second chances.

Who in this life has not made a mistake? I know I have, and I am thankful for the second chances I have been given. So why is society so fast to judge those coming out of jail? It angers me that so many people turn them away, without ever giving them a chance. If prison time is served to pay one’s debt to society, why does society still shun those who have paid their debts?

I know that these people have a lot to offer.

I’d like to share a story detailing how I know that. When I was an infant, my father could not find work and struggled to support my mother and me. He turned to stealing. He would take items such as lawn equipment and fishing gear from people’s shops and sell them to buy food and pay bills. Was this right?

Absolutely not. But he did what he thought he needed to for his family. He was caught and served time in prison. When he got out, he struggled to find work. He became a painter, but it was never stable income.

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About 5 years later, he found an electrician willing to take a chance on him.

He completed an apprenticeship and became a licensed electrician. Within just a few years he worked his way up to foreman and was managing his own crew, working all around the country on major electrical jobs. He stayed with this job for the next 20 years, until an on-the-job injury forced him to retire. Daddy was an upstanding, contributing member of society who earned six figures each year. He never committed another crime and he is a man I am proud of. He and I are forever thankful to the man who gave him a chance.

So, I know first-hand how important it is to have a shot. And I know how unfair it is not to get it. My hope in volunteering with Positive Transitioning is that I can help someone else be the parent to their child that my Daddy was to me.

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Meet Ericka Foster: Giving Back In February of this year, I took over the responsibility of creating the monthly magazine for Positive Transitioning, Inc. For me, giving back is a spiritual practice – since I’m lucky enough to be here, I have a responsibility to make the world a little bit better. That’s why I volunteer.

I chose this cause because I believe that change is hard. Simple things like watching less television or working out regularly are hard to integrate as habits. I can only imagine the change required to rise above the behaviors, circumstances, and mindset that can land a person in prison. That sh-- is hard.

The playing field is not always level, is it? There are societal, institutional, and systemic circumstances that can create a direct line to prison. What pisses me off – I mean motivates me – is that even after men and women have paid their debt to society, nobody wants to give them a shot. And they are part of a system that makes a profit when people don’t get second chances.

We can do better.

Each month, I learn something that disgusts me, from women being shackled while giving birth, women having to pay for tampons, to the use of solitary confinement as a punishment technique.

But then, I also learn something that restores my faith in humanity. Women who receive their master’s degrees in prison, programs that actually make inmates feel whole, and people who understand the value of all humans – even those who have been incarcerated.

I am proud of the changes we’ve made to the magazine over the course of this year, I am fortunate to work with dedicated and talented staff. I CAN’T WAIT to see how we can do better in 2020.

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Meet Maggie I just joined Positive Transitioning, Inc. back in February of this year, and it’s given me a chance to broaden my skills while supporting a cause that resonates with me. I have never been to prison, nor known anyone personally who has. I make it my business to care because it is a pressing issue effecting fellow human beings, and the minorities among them most of all. I have a voice that might be louder than some others, and it could lend itself to helping others. I want to use this potential power for good whenever I can, and I’m always open to criticism if I’m going about it wrong.

I believe that the prison system in America is fundamentally broken. It goes above and beyond punishing people, regardless of the severity of their crimes, while focusing very little on reform and rehabilitation.

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It dehumanizes them, and sets them up for failure again and again, all the while pushing this narrative of a “moral failing” on the part of prisoners. But really, what this country has done in privatizing prisons is encouraging people to come in, out, and back in again through a revolving door, because recidivism is highly profitable.

And, on a less important note, it’s needlessly expensive for the poor job it is currently doing. According to the Vera Institute of Justice, incarcerating and caring for prisoners is costing taxpayers somewhere between $30,000 and $60,000 (depending on the state). So basically, companies are making bank while real people are struggling and suffering.

Pardon my French, but that is bullshit.

What motivates me, you ask? I was bullied and left out a lot growing up, both for being different and having a special needs sibling, neither of which anyone bothered to even try understanding. I have seen plenty of needless cruelty and judgment, some of it from otherwise well-meaning people. The one thing that I’ve learned above all else is that NO ONE deserves to be treated that way.

Mistakes happen in life, even really big ones, but the important thing is that you learn from them and keep moving forward, trying to be better every day. Forgiveness in interpersonal relationships is not always guaranteed; sometimes you may burn a bridge, and nothing you can do will fix it. But to have basically all of society take one look at you and decide you can’t change? To say that because you made a mistake, or because you look a certain way, you deserve whatever awful things happen to you?

That cuts me, deep down in my soul. I won’t pretend I know exactly what you are going through, or have ever felt anything comparable. I can’t promise that. But I do care, and I will listen. Even if I never see the inside of a jail cell myself, I will never stop caring about this issue until we collectively see a better solution come to fruition.

I hope that people connect with my writing, and don’t find cringy spelling errors. But most of all, I want to educate people, and teach them about what it means to have empathy. It’s not always easy, and sometimes I’m up late at night, stressing and overthinking things. But I would rather have this trait and embrace it than be blissfully ignorant, however relaxing that might feel.

Cheers to all. Keep fighting the good fight.

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What is your gratitude tool: Meet Isabella Dos Santos Gratitude is for me one of the greatest qualities to have. I am far from mastering it, but I have been trying to incorporate some activities in my daily life that reflect how thankful I am: thankful for those who surround me, thankful for my family and thankful for what I have received in the course of my life.

Gratitude has been linked to happiness and healthy behavior. Being grateful has even been correlated to an overall well-being, joy, less anxiety and depression, positive emotions, and even healthier eating patterns and physical activity.

One activity I do to channel my gratitude is writing. It not only feels good and relaxes me, but it also fulfills me, especially when it is about something that I want to share with others to help them achieve a healthier life. This is the main reason I wanted to write for Positive Transitioning.

For me, writing for Positive Transitioning has been a nice journey, and I hope that I can reach some readers and impact their simple daily life decisions when it comes to nutrition and well-being. Am I achieving that goal? I am not sure, but I would like to think I am.

Days seem to be passing faster every day, and Christmas is just around the corner. I invite you to board the gratitude boat with me and work towards “mastering� it by the end of this year. Start by thanking those that make your life a bit better and a bit easier each day. Talk to your kids about the importance of being grateful. Give a call to an old friend. Give a hug to someone in need of one.

Tomorrow, start your day with a deep breath, pick something you want to be grateful for, and keeping it mind for the whole day. If it makes sense to you, repeat it every day.

Happy Holidays!

We hope you enjoyed this special edition of Positive Transitioning Magazine!

Our next edition will be in January 2020.

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