A story about a first-class program achieving second-chance successes.
Growing up in the inner city is a struggle only those who have lived it can fully understand. Mothers raise babies alone, married to welfare programs that banish fathers from the home. The streets are an asphalt playground where children learn about drugs and sex and violence long before they can process any of it. And the educational system remains so inadequate that it is known as a “school-to- prison pipeline.” Some escape to a better life, but far more find themselves with no life at all, causing them to take a darker path that all too often leads to incarceration.
Ed Andrews knows a lot about that darker path.
As a young man, he was so lost in its shadows that he ended up in prison. But deep within his soul, the embers of both remorse and hope glowed faintly — and he fanned those embers until he had what he describes as “...a spiritual revelation that was like a punch in the belly.” Soon after, he became a tutor and peer mentor for his fellow inmates. In time, he received early release from prison. And it was during his stay at a halfway house, that he had a second revelation: post-release programs were limited and ineffectual. So Andrews got to work.
He earned a B.S. from Springfield College and certificates in Negotiation Mastery and Power and Influence for Positive Impact from Harvard Business School. He also studied with Dr. Maysa Akbar, a pioneer in the psychology of how urban trauma, a kind of PTSD, effects children and the adults they become — not only developing a deep understanding of what led to his own environmental traumas and incarceration but earning his certification as an Urban Trauma Specialist. And in 2019,he founded Second Chance Re-Entry Initiative Program, Inc. — or SCRIP, a uniquely dynamic new counseling and educational initiative.
ASCEND is SCRIP’s most comprehensive program.
ASCEND — or Academic, Social, Counseling, Expert-Mentoring & Networking Development — is uniquely successful at helping ex-offenders obtain employment and avoid recidivism. In phase one, facilitators and licensed clinicians challenge participants to dig deep and identify the personal and environmental traumas triggering poor decision-making. In phase two, participants effectively replace those triggers with new skills and coping strategies. In phase three, participants build the vocational and personal capabilities required to achieve their short- and long-term goals — including attending financial literacy workshops and forging connections with SCRIP’s corporate partners. And in phase four, ASCEND graduates are invited to remain connected to the program through weekly Stick to the Scrip meetings, during which they continue to build on their successes.
The CARE — or Comprehensive Adult-ReEntry — program is similar to ASCEND but also includes housing.
A twelve-month, three-phase program for those transitioning from incarceration back into the community, CARE features subsidized residence for a year, ensuring stable housing — a critical benefit for all participants. During phase one, intensive physical and mental health services, including the trauma-informed programming needed to prepare individuals for future personal, vocational, and interpersonal responsibility, are provided, while phase two weaves vocational support, job placement assistance, and financial literacy development into ongoing therapeutic services. In phase three, participants are actively prepared to sign their own lease and return to independent living.
The Youth Rise program for younger participants also provides housing.
Much like the ASCEND and CARE programs, but focused on community members 17 to 25 years old, the goal of Youth Rise is to surround reentry and at-risk youth with caring and culturally competent individuals capable of offering an inclusive learning environment and a strong sense of both individual responsibility and belonging. And much like CARE, Youth Rise also includes a residential stay, facilitating the same housing stability and extensive counseling provided in ASCEND. Indeed, participants aren’t allowed to get jobs during the first three or four months, so that they can invest entirely in themselves by building the solid footings upon which to create a new life filled with self-worth and self-regulation.
Then there’s SCRIP’s COPE program.
Also known as the Career Opportunities and Pathway’s to Employment program, COPE is a highly effective transitional employment program that helps participants identify job and training opportunities, write resumes, develop interview skills, and navigate Connecticut’s GED process. To ensure sustainable employment, COPE offers lifelong support.
And SCRIP’s Urban Male/Female Initiative Programs have proven equally valuable.
Because urban men and women of color raised in the inner city face greater psychological distress than other races from other environments, the Urban Male/Urban Female Initiative programs offer emotional support through group therapy forums and individual sessions with clinicians. Concurrent assistance with skill development, employment, and housing further prepares participants for future success.
And truth be told, SCRIP was founded not a moment too soon.
According to Allison Cross, in her Hartford Courant article entitled Pain Won’t Stay Behind the Bars, “...the Department of Corrections has classified 95% of its incarcerated population as having currently or previously suffered from a mental health disorder, a substance abuse disorder, or both.” Prison does little to change that — but SCRIP’s programs do.
They provide the services most likely to heal urban trauma, resolve addiction and sexuality issues, create financial literacy, facilitate employment, and end homelessness. And both CARE and Youth Rise, with their crucial residential component, really set the stage for success, optimizing the value of SCRIP’s other programs and services.
“People with urban trauma only know one way to act,” explains Andrews, “and that ‘way’ involves not caring for themselves or anyone else. At SCRIP, things are different. They learn to love themselves, to love others — and they learn to say I’m sorry. And that changes everything, enabling participants to experience cognitive and behavioral transformations as impressive as they are inspiring.”
Therein lies the SCRIP difference — and what a difference it is.
