NKU Second Chance Program helps incarcerated women feel empowered

Northern Kentucky University successfully graduated five individuals from River City Correctional Center in Cincinnati from its pilot Second Chance Program.

In January, the program was brought to the women in River City to help them train in basic computer concepts and terminology, use Microsoft programs professionally, and help them create a resume from scratch. Last month the first five graduates celebrated their program completion with family, River City, and NKU staff.

Two of those graduates are Marcella Sears and Kari Fellinger, who say the program boosted their confidence and gave them a stepping stone for life outside of the correctional facility. 

“It really makes us as addicts who are in recovery or the fact that everybody’s trying to reduce recidivism, it really puts us in a point where we went from hopeless to now having hope,” Fellinger said. “Resumes are going to be a lot more empowered now. So, it’ll make us feel more empowered because we have that to be able to put on our resume now.”

The women at River City Correctional are only there for a maximum of six months. They are farther into their time at the facility when they become eligible to start taking classes. At the time, River City only offered GED classes.

Sarah Mann, who teaches introduction to business computing at Northern Kentucky University, introduced the Second Chance Program at the facility.

Mann’s class at NKU is essentially a computer literacy course, so she suggested that type of material be what she taught the women at River City. Mann said the proposal for the program was made pre-COVID, though it just held its first class this year. The effort was part of the university’s “Success by Design” plan, which helps create pathways for people to attend college and create access for adult learners.

“It (the program) gave me something to tell them (her family) that I can be proud of for a change, like even just graduating River City was one of my small goals,” Sears said. “It’s a step to having a good life. Just to know that if you just take the right next step, you can have a life. It’s not over.”

Sears, who got her degree in web design in 2013, said technology has since changed drastically, and the class helped her get up to date on the latest web tools.

“Just about any job that you’re going to have today, you’re going to use some form of technology,” Mann said. “One of the ladies has been incarcerated for 12 years. She came to River City as part of the work reentry program to get her ready to return to society. So, you can imagine how much technology has changed in 12 years.”

In addition to learning Microsoft programs, the women also learned how to create a resume.

“They have to build a resume from a blank document, not using a template,” Mann said. “They’re learning to use Word, how to space things, and how to make it look nice on the paper, so they had to build a resume, so they had that ready when they got out.”

Though Sears is not out of River City yet, she said she has already submitted her resume to a few businesses.

“I’ve actually already used my resume with four different companies,” Sears said. “So, when I leave, I have a job already waiting for me. But I have options. I can go to one of the four companies, and my resume is out there, and I can get online and update it.”

Mann said they also worked with Microsoft Excel, learning to use formulas and functions to configure budgets and loans.

“There were a lot of textbook things, but then we also adapted some of it to make it relevant for them, like how to do budgeting or how to figure out payments, loan payments, how much they would pay in interest over five or ten years if they were buying a car, that kind of thing,” Mann said. 

Mann said the program gave the women confidence in their abilities to potentially return to school or find a job that uses technology.

“I heard a quote one time, ‘I’m not afraid of the storm. I’m just learning how to sail my ship,'” Fellinger said. “So that’s what I have to do. Relive and relearn life again.”

The class also yields three college credits upon transfer to NKU once they are released if they choose to pursue that. Each graduate has Mann’s contact information, and she said she is their gateway to connecting with admissions or other areas of campus if they decide to pursue NKU.

Both Sears and Fellinger said they want to pursue post-secondary education at NKU after completing the class and receiving the three credits. They also said expanding their support system to those faculty at NKU is huge for them.

Fellinger said that when she gets out, she wants to help teenage girls with their social skills, build their self-esteem and help them work toward a better life. She said the Microsoft programs she learned in the Second Chance program would allow her to do.

Mann also coordinated with the university to donate a surplus of old refurbished laptops to each participant to use once they are released. Mann said one of the released women emailed her and thanked her for the computer because she did not have access to a phone yet but could video chat with her family through the laptop.

“That kind of gave me a nice warm, fuzzy feeling when I got that email,” Mann said.

According to Mann, River City is interested in continuing the program, and she said she is looking into expanding the program to other facilities.

That’s good news to Fellinger, who said she hopes NKU continues the program because she will be walking out of River City with “more of a chance to survive in society.” Sears agreed and suggested that NKU could expand further into other topics like vocational skills.

The newfound confidence the women found from the Second Chance Program gave them something Fellinger said helps their recovery.

“Addiction has no face. It could be your mother, your brother, your father, or even from a car accident taking pain medicine, and now they’re on heroin,” Fellinger said. “You just never know the situation. They never judged us—Sarah and the dean made us feel like we were important, just like anybody else they would have taught at school at NKU.”