ITOWN Missions Pastor Mike Woods says the COVID-19 Pandemic has limited their ability to help incarcerated individuals, "We wanted to figure out the best way for us to provide the resources for when men and women have served their time and get out."
ITOWN and IDOC's Re-Entry Division began collaborating on new ways to help the department and the people they serve. ITOWN purchased the backpacks which include toiletries and other necessary items.
"We wanted to put these bags together to let them know 'we're here for you, we love you'. We stand with our friends at the Department of Correction," Missions Pastor Woods said. "We're always looking for ways to enhance the services so men and women don't return."
Re-Entry monitors picked up the backpacks and took them to a DOC facility in Plainfield, Indiana. From there, the backpacks were packaged and will be distributed to all DOC facilities to be given to individuals upon their release.
The re-entry division has faced unique challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, including placement of some recently-released individuals into safe housing.
"It's a wonderful opportunity to be able to provide an additional level of service to individuals being released from our facilities that may not necessarily have a permanent home to go to," said Ricky Ganaishlal, re-entry monitor. "In addition to providing them with somewhere to live, we also wanted to provide the essentials they would need."
"We exhaust every single opportunity we can to make sure that we provide an opportunity for men and women leaving our facilities to have housing," Ganaishlal said. "We're releasing them to their communities knowing that they have a roof over their head and the essentials they need to continue to be successful."
This donation of backpacks will be the first of four donations totaling 1,000.
Dept. of Correction Employees Ricky Ganaishlal and Jim Hunt load the backpacks for delivery.
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