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Click here for an update on Project Return published Jan. 17 in The (Shreveport) Times

Project Return helps ex-prisoners find jobs

Julianna Petchak
Not too long ago, finding a job seemed impossible to Dennis Holmes. “But, today is a new day,” he tells his addiction recovery class at Project Return. “There is a good life out there open to anyone who wants it. There are people to help you.”

Holmes met Kay Thornton-Fitts, an LSUS graduate and director of Project Return, through Goodwill services. Since then, he has completed seven months of training to work as a Project Return counselor. Like everyone else who works for Thornton-Fitts, Holmes is an ex-prison inmate.

Project Return is designed to help people who have been in prison acquire the skills needed to become more employable and also to learn general life skills. Math and English classes prepare them to earn a GED. The program also offers addiction recovery classes, teaches computer skills and tutors students to improve their reading skills. Most are on a seventh- to ninth-grade level, but some read at a third-grade level or lower, Thornton-Fitts said.

The program has teamed with Bossier Parish Community College to hold classes for Project Read, an adult literacy program.

“Adults who can’t read are not generally comfortable going to a college campus,” Thornton-Fitts says. “We offer them a comfortable, non-threatening environment where they can come and learn to read.” In addition to Project Return students, anyone enrolled in Project Read can attend the classes at the Project Return center.

Thornton-Fitts’ interest was sparked after she took a criminal justice class and a class on the history of Louisiana corrections at LSUS. After working as a registered nurse for 22 years, she wanted to change careers. While earning a Master of Science in Human Services Administration at LSUS, she began working to bring Project Return to Shreveport. The program also operates in Lafayette and New Orleans, where it was started by former Shreveporter Robert Roberts.

The Shreveport branch of Project Return opened in November 2002, and had 58 students in mid-April. In March, about a dozen students were placed in jobs.

“That is quite an accomplishment for any job placement service,” Thornton-Fitts said, adding that some employers even come to the program looking for workers.

“A program like this has been needed in Shreveport for a long time,” said Fred Perez, a current Project Return student who also works part-time providing janitorial services at the center.

In addition to providing education, Perez says the program provides him with advocates as he searches for employment.

“You have to put that you are a convicted felon on the application, and then you are discriminated against,” he said. “I now have someone to speak up for me when I look for work.” He said the counselors also helped him improve his applications.

“If you prove to Kay you are committed, she will stand behind you 100 percent and fight for you,” program participant Gail Jackson said.

Posters on the walls of the center’s group meeting room feature the program’s guidelines for community building. The community-building model is the basis for Project Return, Thornton-Fitts explained.

Jackson and Perez agree that a large part of the program’s success is the support it provides for the students. “This place is a safe house for us. We are a big family and we support each other,” Jackson said. She started with the program when it opened, participated full-time before she found a job, and still comes whenever she is not working.

“When I got out of jail, I was scared,” Jackson said. “I didn’t see any way to live other than on welfare. I like being able work, and Project Return has helped me do that.”

The Project Return center has a classroom, a group meeting room, a library complete with the Project Read textbooks, and two computer labs, one to teach computer skills and the other equipped with a program to improve math and English skills. The library will soon be equipped with a computer as well.

A four-year research study, conducted by the New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission evaluating the effectiveness of Project Return, shows that in the first year only 10 percent of program graduates returned to crime compared with 37 percent of the control group who did not participate in the program. Details of the research are available on the Project Return Web site, www.projectreturn.com.

Project Return in Shreveport is funded through grants from programs such as the Community Foundation and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families state plan.

In addition, Office Furniture Outlet donated several pieces of furniture and the Beard Foundation donated copy machines and other office equipment.

The program depends heavily on volunteers, and Thornton-Fitts said she adjusts the schedule to accommodate anyone who has time to volunteer. She is currently in need of volunteers to tutor students in Project Read. Anyone interested may contact Thornton-Fitts at 673-8200.

Never satisfied with the “status quo,” Thornton-Fitts said she hopes to expand the program to work with juvenile offenders.

(Julianna Petchak is a former student editor of LSUS News.)