Salvation Army Hosts Reentry Simulations
by Hugo Bravo
The Salvation Army’s 49-9 Project offers guidance and spiritual support to men and women in prison through reentry classes, benefit assistance, résumé writing, and other services. Begun by the Army’s Oberlin, Ohio, Service Unit, the 49-9 Project is now an official part of the Northeast Ohio (NEOSA) Division. The project is based on Isaiah 49:9, which talks about bringing prisoners to freedom and those in darkness to light.
One of the 49-9 Project’s most popular programs is its interactive reentry simulations, which help people prepare for the challenges they may face once they leave prison. These simulations combine role-playing scenarios with real-life tasks and routines that someone recently released from prison might face in their first four weeks of freedom.
Participants are assigned an envelope with a “life card,” which details a unique situation that they must navigate through. For example, one life card might require the participant to find a state ID, make time to take drug tests, and find a way to raise a specific amount of money a month to pay rent. Another life card will start with a job and enough cash for rent but will require finding transportation to visit a probation officer and go food shopping.
Volunteers, staff, and even fellow inmates sit at tables to act as the different check-in locations. They are encouraged to bring in their own ideas to make that part of the simulation their own.
“A volunteer suggested that the ID office table give out numbers and call people up one by one,” says Mark Fahringer, director of the 49-9 Project. “That table always gets jammed up, but that’s the goal. It’s closer to a real-life ID office that way.”
At another table called “Chance,” participants can be presented at random with a situation that could impact the life card positively or negatively. For example, they might have to deal with an old acquaintance offering money in exchange for committing crimes that could put the participant back in prison. Surprise situations like this show them the temptations and mistakes that someone can face out of prison.
After the simulation, participants say they are grateful for the opportunity to see what they someday might face in their own freedom.
“We’ve been told by the inmates that do the simulation how they wish more programs like this were available to them,” says Fahringer. “And the correctional facilities want us to do more of them. The Department of Corrections in Toledo, Ohio, has even asked for us to train them on hosting these simulations for themselves.”
Having done these events at Salvation Army conventions in Philadelphia and Dallas, Fahringer hopes to host simulations at local Salvation Army corps and divisional and territorial headquarters. These simulations, he says, aren’t just for individuals in prison, but for their friends, family, caseworkers, and the public to have a better idea of what comes with rebuilding a life after prison.
“I had a probation officer volunteer to be a participant,” Fahringer says. “He told me that even though he always told people the steps they had to take when they were out of jail, he had never taken the time to walk in their shoes, until he did the simulation himself.”
Click here for more information about the 49-9 Project.
