Programs offer mentoring, resources for youth and parents to reduce recidivism
By Sarah Hurwitz
Click here for updates on this story
PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — The Portland Peace Initiative, a coalition of multiple organizations, held its first table discussion on gun violence Friday. There were a number of people who joined in that discussion, which centered around investment in the Black community.
The group touched on the importance of programs that help reduce recidivism, by giving kids and their parents the tools and resources to grow together. One of those programs is Know Me Now, a nonprofit that helps connect kids with their incarcerated parents and gives their parents support when they’re released from prison.
This is a crucial piece that’s been brought up in many discussions on gun violence, the missing link for kids if their parent is incarcerated and they don’t have a good mentor.
Director Hosheman Brown said the program not only gives kids that connection with their parents, but it offers guidance for their parents when they’re released with access to groups who work with them on housing and getting a job.
“We give those parents an opportunity,” Brown said. “We have crews that are formed through church groups, civic groups, community groups and when (a) mom or dad is being released from incarceration they get to walk alongside them for one full year,” Brown said. “That’s giving them an opportunity for employment. We work with second chance employers.”
Brown shared how the program was able to adapt in the pandemic.
“Even during (COVID-19) when a lot of these moms and dads weren’t given the opportunity to really have that connectivity with their kids, we went to the Department of Corrections to ask if they could actually put kiosks in all 14 prisons in Oregon and they did,” Brown said. “And so now opened up our first ever virtual visitation space.”
Brown says that visitation space is in north Portland. Kids come into the office by their case workers and have a virtual visit for one hour, once a month with their incarcerated parent.
The group also heard from Dontae Riley, the founder of STARS Mentoring Program. He says they work with at-risk students 12-24 who are usually in a non-traditional high school setting. That includes alternative schools, the juvenile justice system and foster system.
Riley says the program offers a lot of sports and other activities to build relationships with students, as well as mentoring.
“Our thing is really deconstructing the myths, tearing all the walls down and rebuilding them with self-appreciation, morale compass, character and just giving them an opportunity to find the ‘them,’” Riley said. “That’s what I like to say. Find the ‘you’ before you came outside, because when you (were) in the house with a blanket eating cereal you (weren’t) this guy. That’s a learned behavior. Through a lot of different conversations and groups, I get them to see you’ve been tricked. And once they understand that they’ve been tricked, they’re all about trying to build those skills.”
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
