Turn90’s mission is to keep men from returning to prison.
We provide a full day of cognitive-behavioral classes and transitional employment, combined with wraparound supportive services. But some needs exceed our financial ability. Driver’s license reinstatement fees. Job training. Housing. Meeting those needs can sometimes be the difference between success after prison or going back to the streets.
So we asked the Central Carolina Community Foundation for help.
As a Connected Communities grantee, we’ll be able to do so much more for the men we serve in Columbia.
Through their Connected Communities Grant, the CCCF strives to help create a livable, equitable, and just community in which to live, work, play, and raise a family. Connected Communities Grants support this work by funding innovative ideas from nonprofit organizations that will further knit our community together. The Foundation aims to inspire organizations to engage and invest in our community.
The Foundation heard about our needs and jumped in to help.
Thanks to the CCCF, we now have funding to offer concrete financial support to our Columbia program participants. This funding will be used in a variety of ways: from paying off fees to reinstate a driver’s license, to helping subsidize a deposit on an apartment, to paying for vocational training or tutoring for a GED. We are thrilled to support our community in this new and exciting way.
The Columbia Center’s Program Manager Sarah Brown is already putting the funds to good use. Just this month she paid off over $500 in fees to help one man reinstate his driver’s license so he’ll have stable transportation to and from Turn90 and his future employment. Another man was facing eviction from his apartment. Sarah invested $1000 to ensure stable housing for him now and in the future.
This may not sound like a lot, but to a man whose whole world feels balanced on the head of a pin, it’s huge.
It’s our goal to support every man who comes through the front doors of our Turn90 Centers. We believe every man who wants to change his life for the better deserves the opportunity to do so, and now, thanks to the support of the Central Carolina Community Foundation, we have more ability to serve than ever before.