Life Is About Connections
Part I: Prologue
Roughly a year ago, my desk was piled high with drafts and revisions for an application to the National Community Stabilization Trust (NCST) so that a client, Jumpstart Prison Ministry could be approved to receive low-income designated, affordable housing. Jumpstart is a group dedicated to preparing inmates to reenter society with the personal and professional skills to stay out of prison thereafter.
Inmates in twelve different state penitentiaries in South Carolina have the ability to volunteer for the Jumpstart Program if they are within two years of release. They attend weekly meetings, personal mentoring sessions and group sessions over the course of forty weeks. During this time they address the specific behaviors that caused them to commit the crimes that landed them in prison. At the end of the forty weeks, those who attend all the sessions, complete their assignments and participate positively become graduates of the program.
This is when Jumpstart as an organization truly shines in the community.
Inmates spend at minimum forty weeks—those who do not graduate the first year they sign up are allowed to attend the next year’s cycle—learning how to be a good community member and citizen. After graduation, they are given the opportunity to move into transitional housing run by Jumpstart’s ‘Outside Program’ (outside of prison).
These transitional homes are governed by a code of conduct that each participant agrees to abide by, that reinforces the positive habits and behaviors learned during the forty week program in prison. During the stay in the transitional homes, participants perform community service projects, pursue job skills training and certification and seek to find a permanent home.
And here, the NCST enters the scene. In 2009, in the wake of the foreclosure crisis that plagued the US housing market, the NCST was formed to help financial institutions reintroduce foreclosed or abandoned properties to individuals and families who qualified for affordable housing. The Jumpstart program was approved in early 2014 to receive properties that would not only provide employment for the program participants who would renovate the houses, or house transitional home sites, but also could be sold to program participants for a very low sum and create first-time homebuyers who might otherwise be entirely homeless.
Part II: Clay Hampton the community activist
For the last thirty-six years, the Charleston Blazing Hawks semi-pro football team has been providing an outlet for athletes who have graduated high school but won’t be going on to play at the next level. The team was founded by a James Island, SC native, Clay Hampton whose 158 pound frame did not align with his own NFL career dreams. When Clay founded the team, he envisioned young athletes with a desire to play ball who could still compete while enrolled in night classes and focusing on their education and careers rather than falling prey to a life on the streets. Until March of 2014, that is exactly what Clay and the Blazing Hawks provided athletes in the area.
On March 23, 2014, a fire broke out in the home of Clay Hampton. He lost everything he owned except the pajamas he wore as he dove over a fence to escape the flames. Amongst the charred remains lay what was left of the uniforms, cleats, pads and the rest of the equipment for the Blazing Hawks. Clay, 72 years old, was left homeless and penniless.
Part III: Two wrongs make a right?
In late 2014, the NCST awarded the Jumpstart ministry a property in North Charleston, SC. The home was in a poor (at best) condition, but Jumpstart participants have or are taught many trade skills, thus the decision was made to accept the property, renovate it, and begin housing transitional program graduates. After further investigation, it was discovered that the property was too close to daycare centers and schools for the ex-convicts to move in. It seemed as though an opportunity was lost and was Jumpstart in possession of a property it could not use.
Lightbulb.
David Phillips and the Custom Development Solutions (CDS) team made the connection to Clay Hampton as we found out that he was still without home and staying with friends and family as best he could find space. Now, the Jumpstart participants could come from their headquarters in Spartanburg, SC down the three or so hours to North Charleston, SC to help renovate the NCST awarded property and transfer the keys into the deserving hands of Clay. A true win-win scenario—Clay would no longer be homeless, Jumpstart graduates would have an opportunity to volunteer their newly learned skills and the community of North Charleston will be introduced to the Jumpstart program and the transformational change it has the potential to bring about.
At the time of writing this, final preparations are occurring for a work weekend January 3-4, 2015 as a dozen or so Jumpstart graduates, community members, Clay Hampton and his friends and family will be working on the property that will become his new home.
I wish to express my deepest thanks to the great folks at the National Community Stabilization Trust for the work they do to combat foreclosure and abandonment, the incredible men and women of the Jumpstart Ministry for their dedication to breaking the cycle of incarceration that plagues thousands of families across the nation and to my colleagues here at CDS who have shared with me this incredible opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others.
Matthew Kerry Gardner is a Senior Campaign Director at Custom Development Solutions, Inc (CDS).