Denny Tubbs loves his new job as a community health worker, connecting people who have been incarcerated to various resources.
However, it is challenging.
“You always have to do your own research and make sure everything applies for the person and is helpful,” he said.
Tubbs, who works for a local hospital in the Milwaukee area, does not want to waste people’s time. Having left incarceration himself, he knows what it feels like to go from one place to another, trying to put all the post-incarceration pieces together.
A new website, which launched in November, aims to make the process easier by providing clear, accurate information about resources most often needed by people leaving incarceration.
‘Comprehensive and logical’
The website is an extension of the Home to Stay monthly resource fair for people who have left incarceration, or who are “reentering” the community after incarceration.
In the same spirit as the resource fair, a major function of the site is to provide a one-stop shop where people reentering can go for information, support and resources, said Adam Procell, who coordinates the resource fair and has been developing the site.
‘It’s shocking we haven’t had this yet. To me, it’s not rocket science.’
Adam Procell
The site groups resources by type, such as legal, food, housing and clothing, and can be filtered further by county.
“It will be helpful to have reentry resources organized in this comprehensive and logical way,” said Conor Williams, who facilitates the Milwaukee Reentry Council, which coordinates reentry resources on a county level.
Tubbs said that the most common thing people ask him about is employment.
“Anyone that’s getting home from prison, they’ll have a resource directory to go get help wherever they are,” said Shannon Ross, who worked with Procell on the site and is the executive director of The Community, a Milwaukee nonprofit that creates content for and about people who have been incarcerated.
Additional features
The site also includes information about activities, events and success stories.
“The success stories are powerful testimonies from peers and should help to foster hope,” said Williams.
The site will have content for the wider community of people impacted by the criminal justice system as well, including crime survivor resources and systemic reform efforts, said Ross.
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Ross and Procell also are developing an app to mirror the website, which would include even more features.
“Let’s say you get out and you have ‘driver’s license’ as one of your needs that’s listed. If you’re walking past the DMV, you’ll get a text that says, ‘look to your left’ or ‘in 15 feet, you’ll see one,’” said Procell.
Ross and Procell collaborate with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections on reentry-related efforts, so another goal is to have departmental staff share the site with people who are incarcerated and reentering.
Less work, more help
After using the site for the first time, Tubbs immediately saw its value.
“The website eliminates just having to go to Google, searching and typing in something and then going to that,” Tubbs said.
“Now, you go to one website that brings to you all that information, everything you need.”
It’s also easy enough for anyone to use – not just reentry professionals but people themselves who need the resources, Tubbs said.
While it took several years to get the site up and running, that doesn’t mean it’s a complicated idea, Procell emphasized.
“It’s shocking we haven’t had this yet,” he said. “To me, it’s not rocket science.”
News414 is a service journalism collaboration between Wisconsin Watch and Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service that addresses the specific issues, interests, perspectives and information needs identified by residents of central city Milwaukee neighborhoods. Learn more at our website or sign up for our texting service here.
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