Metro Detroit Foundation helps people find independence, success after prison
MICHIGAN
Metro Detroit foundation helps people
find independence, success after prison
Angie Jackson
Detroit Free Press
Published 6:00 a.m. ET Nov. 30, 2020
Six days a week, Bob Schwartz meets formerly incarcerated metro Detroiters in the parking lot of a Royal Oak restaurant to hand out gift cards.
The $150 gift cards to Walmart are meant to go toward clothing and other necessities. For people coming home from prison, it's the first step in assistance from Schwartz's private foundation, Here to Help, which runs a program addressing hurdles that people commonly face after incarceration.
Promoting independence, the level of assistance that people receive is based on their efforts to secure a full-time job and housing.
"If you need some help and you're gonna help yourself, he’s a good guy to call," said David Harris, a 41-year-old from Detroit who returned home from prison in July and received gift cards for groceries.
Here to Help plans to give Harris a $3,000 voucher for a used vehicle when he gets his license soon. To qualify, he'll need to show that he can afford insurance and car maintenance. Then, with the foundation's assistance, Harris plans find a place of his own so he can move out of his relative's home.
Schwartz, a former lawyer from Huntington Woods, started Here to Help with his wife, Robin, in 2007. The foundation gives grants to Wayne and Oakland County residents who face emergencies. Help ranges from covering the first month's rent for people coming out of homelessness to providing used vehicles for people to get to work.
The foundation was already helping formerly incarcerated people when Schwartz started "Returning Hope to Returning Citizens" with a more specialized approach to reentry assistance in August. The program has since handed out grants to about 375 people rebuilding their lives after prison. The foundation has paid $157,435 to cover needs such as move-in costs, home furnishings, utility bills, tools and uniforms for work, used cars, bus passes and bicycles to get to work.
Schwartz said the volume of requests he's received from returning citizens since starting the program is overwhelming. It's not uncommon for him to wake up to a barrage of missed texts and calls from people who heard about Here to Help from their parole
officer or friends in prison. To Schwartz, the level of need underscores his belief that many people leave prison unprepared for reentry. He thinks it helps for returning citizens to have someone in their corner.
"It’s a commitment for us," he said. "... People have said, 'Mr. Bob, I don’t want to let you down.'”
It's an expensive program to fund because assistance is offered in a 10-step process — a model that Schwartz designed — as formerly incarcerated citizens achieve milestones in their lives after prison. Schwartz said Here to Help is supported by grants from the United Way, a private foundation that wishes to remain anonymous and the late philanthropist Doris Buffett's organization, the Sunshine Lady Foundation.
Reentry was going smoothly for 53-year-old Willie Simmons of Detroit until the coronavirus pandemic hit and he was laid off from his janitorial job in March. While picking up Walmart gift cards from Schwartz on a recent Friday afternoon, Simmons said the Foundation helps people find independence, success after prison as he'd posted his resume to the employment website Indeed and was following up on job leads.
"Once you get a job and you work one pay period, let me know. I’ll get you another $150 at that point," Schwartz told Simmons as he handed him an envelope with gift cards. "And we're gonna keep working with you going forward."
Simmons, who was released from prison a little more than a year ago, said he planned to spend his gift cards on groceries.
"There’s really not too many places like this that I know of," he said. "Sometimes you might need that little help."
Schwartz said Here to Help tries to steer individuals away from low-paying jobs and toward work that'll become a career. He shares resource guides with information about skilled trades and other trainings. The guides also have information about finding housing and how to get an ID, a cell phone, public benefits and counseling.
Gregory Taylor, 55, said Schwartz has helped him with "basically everything" since he returned to Detroit in August after 22 years in prison. Here to Help helped him get clothing, paid for his test to get his driver's license, covered the cost of car repairs and helped him buy tools for his factory job.
Taylor said his next goal is to find housing. It's hard, he said, because some places he's looked into won't rent to people with criminal records, but Schwartz has been sending him listings. The foundation plans to help furnish Taylor's eventual home, outfitting him with everything from furniture to pots and pans.
Beyond offering practical assistance, Taylor said Schwartz has turned into a friend he can depend on as he navigates a world that changed drastically while he was incarcerated.
"Everything you can basically ask for, they’ve been there to help. That’s the best organization I’ve heard of," he said.
Here to Help's returning citizens program is open to residents of Wayne and Oakland and Macomb counties. Visit heretohelpfoundation.org to apply online. Send questions to heretohelpfoundation@icloud.com.
Donations may be made to Here to Help via PayPal, or checks may be mailed to Here to Help Foundation, P.O. Box 480, Royal Oak, MI 48068.
Angie Jackson covers the challenges of formerly incarcerated citizens as a corps member with Report for America. Her work is supported by The GroundTruth Project and the Hudson-Webber Foundation. Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution to support her work. Become a Free Press subscriber.
Contact Angie: ajackson@freepress.com; 313-222-1850. Follow her on Twitter: @AngieJackson23