Dismas works with the Department of Corrections to find housing for incarcerated individuals who are ready to leave jail
By Simone Traynor, for the Community News Service
WINOOSKI — On a weeknight on East Allen Street, groups gathered in kitchens, living rooms and over dinner tables, sitting down to share the highlights of their days.
One resident passed the potatoes over the table and shared a memory of a dinner cooked for them during childhood. Other residents discussed tattoos, their weekend plans or the bike ride they had taken earlier in the day.
This meal was one of the Winooski Dismas House’s community dinners, a nightly event for formerly incarcerated people and volunteers.
“It’s the most personal thing you can do with somebody, to break bread. When you sit down, and you’re eating a meal with somebody and talking around the table, it allows for conversation and a chance for people to really get to know each other,” Executive Director Jim Curran said.
The Dismas of Vermont is a nonprofit organization that reintegrates formerly incarcerated people into society through sober living, employment support and shared meals.
“If we call someone a criminal, they will always be a criminal. If you do not give people another chance to prove that they are better than the worst day of their lives, they are not gonna be. It’s really important that we all recognize that we would never want to be judged for the worst thing that we’ve done,” Curran said.
People who want to live at a Dismas house can either connect with a caseworker who submits an application on their behalf, or they can apply themselves. House directors interview candidates and determine whether they would be a good fit for the environment.
“I go to the jail to interview people and discuss with my colleagues if this is a good fit, and we bring people back to the community. It is a very good experience,” Winooski House Director Francine Mbayu said.
Dismas works with the Department of Corrections to find housing for incarcerated individuals who are ready to leave jail and reintegrate into society.
“There are a lot of people who the Department of Corrections is ready to release from prison. They’re no longer a threat to the community. They’ve served their sentence, or enough of their sentence, that Corrections is ready to parole them or release them on furlough. But they don’t have a place to live,” Alec Ewald, former board member of Dismas and professor of political science at the University of Vermont, said.
Residents begin their days by going to work, participating in their individualized sobriety programs or staying at the house. Every weeknight ends with the community dinner.
The community dinners are a cornerstone of the Dismas environment, allowing residents to bond with one another and volunteers.
“We have residents that didn’t really come from a ‘pass the potatoes’ kind of family. There are people with the history of never actually sitting down and having a family dinner. It creates a space where you start learning about new norms,” Curran said.
Weeknight dinners are cooked by volunteers and brought to the house to be shared between residents, staff and volunteers. Mbayu said the dinners allow staff members to allocate their resources toward events and other necessities that keep Dismas functioning.
“Without our volunteers, we couldn’t do this. It would be a lot of money on Dismas to buy food every single day. But we are very blessed that we have at least 22 days of the month covered by volunteers,” Mbayu said.
Most residents coming to Dismas are overcoming a history of substance abuse.
“Our favorite way to work towards helping someone in recovery is a contingency management program, which is a reward program for positive successes around sobriety, with (drug tests) that show no sign of alcohol or drug use. There’s a small reward every week for passing, and those types of programs are typically the most successful programs,” Curran said.
Mike, a resident at the East Allen Dismas House, said living at Dismas has been helpful on his sobriety journey.
“One thing (Dismas) has helped me with is that I’ve stayed clean. I’ve had a place to stay, and I knew I wasn’t gonna touch it again,” he said. “At least I knew I felt safe enough in the house where I knew I wouldn’t drink because there’s plenty of people in the house to talk to. That made it tremendously better for me.”
The day-to-day routine in the house is mellow, according to Mike.
“Everybody does pretty much their thing. It’s an outlet to just get your life straightened out, so you can eventually rent your own place. I do a lot of walking, and lately it’s been bike riding,” Mike said.
Ewald, the former board member, said that Dismas’s mission is twofold: reconciling formerly incarcerated people with the community and reconciling the community with formerly incarcerated people.
Curran said there are many misconceptions about a house like Dismas, and people may rule out volunteering there out of fear.
“Not everybody’s scary. They’re just people,” he said.
Heidi Williams is the volunteer coordinator for the University of Vermont Prison Partnership, a club that volunteers at Dismas. She said everyone deserves a fair chance at reentering society.
“If we as a society are deciding to incarcerate people, if that’s how we’re enforcing punishment and laws, then we as a society have a responsibility to welcome people back into our communities,” she said.
Dismas staff and residents said their door is always open for those who want to volunteer and attend events.
“I recommend it for anybody that’s trying to come out, really. I think it’s a lot better than a lot of the programs out there. It’s a fun place to be. It’s not all serious. It’s a homey environment, and we need more volunteers. It’d be nice to see new faces,” resident Mike said.
Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, for The Winooski News