Mentor: Someone whose hindsight can become your foresight.

 

The Community Service Council, Volunteers of America, Girl Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma, and Resonance Center for Women are coming together to find and train mentors for the Tulsa County Prisoner Reentry Initiative.

 

 

This year 600,000 prison inmates will be released from secure detention facilities and return to their communities and families. Returning ex-offenders will go home to some of the most disenfranchised neighborhoods, where there are few supports and services to help them reintegrate effectively, and where their presence may threaten to disrupt already fragile households and social structures.

 

 

Tulsa Country Prisoner Reentry Initiative (TCPRI) is a comprehensive program designed to address the overwhelming needs of individuals released from prison in an effort to reduce recidivism and shape productive, law-abiding citizens of Tulsa.

 

Mentors are a vital component. Research indicates that participants in reentry programs who meet with a mentor stay in the program longer, are twice as likely to obtain a job and stay in the job than participants who did not meet with a mentor.

 

 

TCPRI are seeking men and women over the age of 18 to provide support, encouragement, and accountability to people who have been released from a correctional facility. A mentor, either individually or as part of a mentor group, typically meets with the mentee at a location in the community approximately once a week, or at a minimum twice each month, for one year.

 

 

Tulsa County Prisoner Reentry Initiative Mentor Training

 

Who: Men and women over the age of 18 interested in committing up to one year as mentor for

 

the Tulsa County Prisoner Reentry program.

 

What: Two-hour workshop on mentoring ex-offenders. This is a required training for all mentors

 

in the TCPRI program.

 

When/Where: There will be two trainings. Mentors are only required to attend one of the following training sessions:

 

(1) June 23, 2009 5:30 PM 7:30 PM (2) June 25, 2009 8:00 AM 10:00 AM

 

 

Community Service Council Community Service Council

 

16 E. 16th Street, Tulsa 16 E. 16th Street, Tulsa

 

 

For more information or to register please contact Kelly Pierron, Community Service Council, at[email protected] or by phone 918.699.4231