Program Overview

The first thing we ask you to consider is our cumulative skills in this area of work. 

David shared his observations regarding this in his reference letter in the previous webpage, which we are grateful for. We would like to add more information to that, though, to give you a clearer understanding of our personal motivation combined with why we believe so strongly in the direction we have planned for this program.

· I was incarcerated roughly four years as a teen followed by over 38 more years as an adult. I definitely understand long-term incarceration both as a child and as an adult. 

· I likewise personally understand what it is like to be freed after such a long duration of incarceration and having to build a new, functioning life in society essentially starting from ground zero.

· My wife Helen and her late husband Alan adopted a young boy named Joey from the foster care system. Like me, Joey was a troubled child who was in and out of the legal system, and as a young adult went to prison with a 22-year sentence for armed burglary. He is currently due to be released sometime next summer.

· When we married in 2022, Joey became my son, and since then I have begun to learn what it is like to have a child who is incarcerated.

· As mentioned in the reference letter, Helen and I have worked (and continue to work) intensively in prison ministry, which gives us first-hand knowledge (beyond what we learned and are continuing to learn in our personal lives) about what is needed for success within this population. We resigned from the Dr. Regina B. Shearn Corrections Transition Program just weeks after David referred to it in his reference letter and have dedicated ourselves more directly to this Micah’s House project and to our Women with Dignity program at Homestead Correctional Institution (you can learn more about Women with Dignity on our website www.eph428.org). Also, we have both taken on Case Manager positions with the Jack Brewer Foundation Fatherhood Program (Helen full time and me part time), and we work daily with prison inmates. 

· Combined, we have multifaceted areas of experience and knowledge in this field that with God’s help and guidance will always steer us through this project.

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· When we directed Anchor House, all financial obligations were our responsibility, i.e. monthly property lease, utilities, auto insurance, food, and so on.  We also saw the men through their immediate post-release needs by helping them make their felon/probation/parole registrations (whichever was applicable per individual), as well as application for food stamps, health insurance, state identification/driver’s license, obtaining copies of their birth certificates, and social security card replacements as needed.  We likewise coordinated with other organizations that provided these and additional post-release services to help the men transition successfully back into society.

· By financial necessity (if they were not already pledged employment somewhere), we required the residents to begin looking for work ASAP. If they did not find employment within the first two weeks, we required the men to begin working through the local day-labor system. This was indeed a financial necessity on our end because we needed what they paid us to live there (residential program fees) in order to be able to pay the operational expenses that we were responsible for. Additionally, even during those times when someone else was covering this expense on behalf of one of them for a period of time, we still held that resident to this standard to keep him in line with responsibility.

· We came to realize that this was just as much a negative as a positive. The positive point is that we had responsibilities of our own and we held each of them to the same responsibility as the man beside him. The negative side of this came from them being rushed into taking on full responsibilities that they were all too often inadequately prepared for.

EXPLANATION: The sad truth is that most men and women who are incarcerated have limited (or no real) work skills and lack sufficient knowledge about how to successfully live in the digital world we all find ourselves in now. This becomes an even greater problem for those who were incarcerated for longer periods of uninterrupted time and who for one reason or another were unable to access educational opportunities in these areas. Sadly, there are those, too, who had opportunities during incarceration to prepare for the future, but chose not to. Yet whether it was a situation brought on by inadequate opportunities to prepare themselves or by the poor decision to simply decline to do so, the end result was all too often the same: Many of the men we worked with did not have the adequate skills and knowledge to take on anything but the lowest realms of employment, which led to many of them giving up and resorting to their earlier (and temporarily more comfortable) knowledge and style of “fast money.”  

· We came to the realization that if we could operate the home without depending upon their residential program fees in order to exist, we could shape the program side of it in whatever way we believed best. But that was never possible while we were there.

· At the end of 2024 we left Anchor House and began working to establish a new residential transition home called Casa Regina on behalf of the Dr. Regina B. Shearn Corrections Transition Program. Unfortunately, after months of work toward this, we had to set this project aside due in significant part to zoning issues covering the area we were looking to work in. The truth is that it is intentionally made difficult for housing programs like ours to be legally established almost anywhere. In one town, we found some zones that were approved for a “halfway house,” and when we looked into those areas designated as approved this is what we found: One spot was a cemetery (really!), one a shopping center, and another a long street filled with Quonset huts that served as garages and where there was no room left to park or add something new. In other words, that town did not want a program like ours to be there and they had no shame in making that point obvious.

· The decision was eventually made to move on from the Casa Regina project, and we asked God what, if anything, He wanted us to do. This line of thinking and praying took us back to the same area where we had been with Anchor House: Lake Worth Beach, Florida. There, we had been accepted and encouraged by the zoning department, and it is in the same county where we live (Palm Beach County), so we made an appointment with their zoning department to talk about this possibility. As only God could and would have it, the same zoning manager who helped us there years before headed this meeting and this is what he had to say: “I remember our previous meeting and the model you presented then, which is the same as you are presenting now; this violates no federal or state statue and you are welcome to return here.”

· Praise the Lord!!!

· When you look ahead to the webpage titled "Micah’s House 1" you will see that when we have a location to begin in, we already possess essentially all the property (including transportation) we need to move forward. Our goal is to start with a 4-bedroom, 2-3 bath home with a sizable garage where we can safely keep all our many tools. Three bedrooms must be large enough that two twin beds can lay side by side in each, enough floorspace to also hold the dressers for the men, and a closet big enough to hold both their clothes. This way, we can use three bedrooms to house up to six men. (The general zoning practice limits six residents to a house and three to an apartment, but there are situations where these numbers can be legally increased.) The fourth bedroom will be utilized as a combination office/residence for the assigned house manager.

· Among our possessions are five computers that will be placed in the living room area, and each will have self-teaching software. Learning how to use and improve their use of these will be one of the program requirements for each participant. They must learn how to function comfortably in this digital world.

· The most important direction we are changing this time, though, is that we are concentrating on employment education and preparation first and CareerSource Palm Beach County is the primary direction we are turning to for this need. (CareerSource provides employment and training to job seekers. Their services include job leads, placement services, resume writing assistance, career planning and counseling, training opportunities, and more. We will work through them to help our men establish a solid new beginning.)

· Together with computer education and employment preparation/assistance, there are other important areas we will work with them in, with budgeting, life skills, and substance abuse prevention being a priority. 

· Along with our inhouse and CareerSource work to help them, we will continue to seek additional aid from other sources to expand our ability to guide them successfully in rebuilding their lives. We will look for every practical means available to provide vocational education while we work to build relationships with businesses that may provide our clients with employment. 

· We will also make our program known to military veterans throughout the Florida prison system; these men have served our country, and some will still be eligible for GI Bill assistance that can help them considerably through this regeneration period.

NOTE: We are not and will not become a recovery program; we are a transition program. However, we do know that substance abuse at one level or another is in the history of nearly every person who is or has been incarcerated and it will be wise for us to not lose sight of this while working with our clients. Steady participation in Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and/or Celebrate Recovery will be required/maintained by each resident. 

NOTE: When you look ahead to the webpage titled "Micah’s House 2" you will see the Flier, Application, Rules, and Savings Account structure we have in place. More information about these components is provided there.

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It should be obvious at this point that we take their futures in this world seriously and that we will do everything we can to guide them through it successfully. Yet all of this discussion has been about the worldly responsibilities that we all have to take on in life if we are to succeed, and how we will help them in that area.  But more importantly, we are Christians, Michah’s House is a Christian residential transition program, and their working relationship with the Lord will be our top priority. Our program will include regular Bible devotional periods and a weekly meal/fellowship time together with Christian counseling available at all times. To help them grow in this all-important part of their spiritual lives, we are confident that the church for them to attend as part of their program involvement is the same one that Helen and I are blessed to attend: Family Church in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Family Church is led by an awesome array of pastors and others who lead us in our Christian growth, and we believe strongly that this is the best church home for our ministry.

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Our long-term goal is to expand beyond this first home and assist even more men who are transitioning back into society, but first we must get Micah’s House in place and establish a sound working model to follow. We cannot accomplish this without help, though, with our most immediate need of assistance being financial donations: No matter how beautiful an idea it is, Micah’s House will not exist if we cannot pay the bills. 

Please review the following page to consider how you may be able to help. Thank you.