“The inmates in the Idaho Maximum Security Institution spend 23 hours a day locked in a cell. A visitor of any sort — even a new face — has the potential to be a highlight of any given day.
“It’s no surprise ‘cookie day’ would be marked on their calendars if they had them. …
[The cookies] show the community … hasn’t forgotten about us.
“[Chaplain Dave] Browning spent more than a decade paying weekly visits to the prison. He bonded with many inmates after the cookies served a proper introduction. That bond includes former inmate Mark Renick [Leading with Conviction™ 2018], who Browning offered a job after his release 13 years ago.
“‘In retrospect, it was huge,’ Renick said. ‘That transition from incarceration to community is a difficult one, and it’s something that we need to pay attention to as a community.’
“Renick, now working with St. Vincent de Paul, pays that same favor forward by providing transitional services to current inmates after their release. The support includes clothes, food, a bus pass, among other services.
“‘[The cookies] show the community cares about us. It hasn’t forgotten about us,’ Renick said. ‘They’re all residents that are gonna return to community. And people like [Browning] have to hire people like me and make that transition. So, it’s very powerful.’
“Volunteers handed out 145,000 cookies in total.”
In our 10th anniversary year, JustLeadershipUSA’s work of educating, elevating, and empowering justice-impacted leaders continues and is growing even stronger!
This is going to be a very special time to look back on the past decade of JLUSA’s important work, the 1,600+ leaders we have helped get to the next level in their work, and even more importantly, we will look ahead to the next 10 years and beyond!
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