SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Bruce Oliver, health and wellness advocate for Harvard Integrations in the Tea, S.D. area, does not believe someone’s past has to prevent future opportunities.
“I believe in second chances, and this company believes in second chances,” Oliver said Monday.
Harvard Integrations employs a lot of welders. And Julie Becker, CEO of the St. Francis House which offers transitional housing in Sioux Falls, says Harvard Integrations has hired six people who studied welding at Southeast Technical College while they were guests at her nonprofit.
“It’s a great partnership between the Department of Corrections, Southeast Technical College, Department of Labor and the St. Francis House, but because of these restraints of funding that everybody is facing now these individuals will be housed at the prison,” Becker said Monday.
Becker says the DOC made the decision, but she also makes clear that she is not at all seeking to attack the department. She says that while the welding education can continue, individuals on work release studying welding at Southeast Tech who previously could have lived at the St. Francis House will now live on the campus of the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. Besides a stable roof over its guests’ heads, the St. Francis House also provides case management, teaches financial literacy and offers a class on employability.
“Not only helping them move forward in their lives, but getting jobs and paying off their fines, restitution and back child support,” Becker said. “We are over $3 million that we have paid back to the state of South Dakota for our, the guests who stay here in the last 10 years.”
And for his part, Oliver praises what guests are able to accomplish while a part of the St. Francis House’s transitional housing program.
“They’re saving money while they’re there,” he said. “They’re perfecting or getting better at their trade.”
KELOLAND News reached out to the Department of Corrections Monday afternoon via email for comment, but as of Monday evening, had not received a response.
