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A successful transition back to service for local prison reentry program the STAR Project

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin - 10/19/2022

Oct. 18—Standing near a shelf lined with collectible sneakers and flanked by his tiny dog Goose, Noel Reyes recalled the journey that brought him to this small Walla Walla apartment.

It is the first place where Reyes has ever lived by himself — though Goose, a gregarious well-behaved puppy that he adopted days ago, keeps him company.

Three weeks ago, Reyes moved from a shared sober-living Oxford House into the transitional housing unit, which he rents with temporary support from the STAR Project.

"Going from the shared living situation to this, I felt like it was just a stepping stone in the right direction," he said.

Founded in 2004, the Successful Transition and Re-entry, or STAR, Project, is a nonprofit organization that works to help people released from prison return to communities in Walla Walla and Columbia counties. Typically, state law requires those released from prison to return to the county in which they first committed a felony.

Over the past 19 years, the STAR Project has steered people into transitional housing and stable employment, and helped connect them to community and state resources.

"We help people who have been away from society at-large, we help them reintegrate with basic life skills," said STAR Executive Director Linda Scott in an interview. "That can be as simple as how bank accounts work, how to get your driver's license back, how to go grocery shopping. Things we might take for granted."

While the impact of these programs on individuals is perhaps the most profound, Scott said the program can also point to its effect on recidivism, or the rate with which former inmates re-offend within 36 months of being released from prison.

Between 2013 and 2021, the recidivism rate of the STAR Project's clients was 14%, nearly half of the statewide average of 27.4%.

But, earlier this year, threatened by budgetary uncertainty and staffing shortages, that decades-long project was at risk of blinking out, Scott said.

As a result of the pandemic, anticipated major grants fell through and fundraisers were put on hold. Former-Executive Director Becky Turner, who had the largest salary at the organization, stepped down in an attempt to save costs. But other staff, uncertain of the organization's future, also began to leave, Scott said.

"The decision had been made on some level that they were going to close," Scott said. "And then it was quickly reversed."

Instead, the program went into a sort of months-long hibernation, cutting back most services except for the transitional housing program that supports formerly incarcerated people like Reyes.

The STAR Project was able to secure a grant to fund operational expenses through July 2023, and it began to staff back up and apply for additional funding.

"I'm actively seeking those sustainable sources of funding and working on different ways to get reimbursement from some of the different services that we offer," said Scott, who prior to coming onto the STAR Project, Scott taught GED-prep and college classes at the Washington State Penitentiary through Walla Walla Community College. Before that, she lived in Portland working in the print, project management and marketing industries.

The organization is still ramping up operations and filling vacant positions, but is returning to where it was prior to the pandemic, she added.

The STAR Project currently works with 76 clients, a significant increase after months of stasis. And it's working its way back to pre-pandemic levels when it served 138 clients.

Reyes, who was incarcerated from 2017 to 2018, reached out to the STAR Project prior to its slowdown, Scott said.

A full-time student at the community college and a case manager for a local nonprofit — he asked for the group not to be named — Reyes had outgrown the Oxford House where he had been staying and was looking for temporary transitional housing.

As the STAR Project began to come back online, it helped Reyes secure that temporary housing.

The group works with a number of local landlords who have agreed to work with STAR's clients, and it offers rental assistance subsidies for up to 60 days for those who have been recently released.

Transitional housing clients are also required to undergo a six-week program to teach them the skills needed to be successful renters in the future, such as building credit, the importance of good references for your rental history and more.

Reyes said support from the STAR Project, not only with housing but with connecting him with services and helping with questions, has helped him get solidly on his feet.

He struggled with addiction for 25 years, and spent around 17 years off and on in prison, he said. During that time, there were often few programs to help people trying to end that cycle and to successfully transition, he said.

"So having somebody say, we're willing to support you with wraparound services, whether it's getting into mental health, whether it's helping you get into treatment, whether it's helping you get into school?" Reyes said. "Having somebody say, hey, we're here to give you a hand up, not a handout?"

"Their support has been monumental in the transition," he said.

Reyes said hopes to finish a Master of Business Administration degree and one day open a detox center to provide support to others fighting addiction.

In the meantime, he plans to stay in transitional housing for at least the next nine months, taking small steps toward a big goal.

"I'm just taking one bite out of the elephant at a time," he said.

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