Street roots., December 11, 2015, Page 10, Image 10

Street Roots • Dec. 11-17, 2015
News
Page 11
ENTREPRENEURS, fro m page 10
beyond. She’s quite clear that this work is
personal, and there is a connection between
herself and the course mentors, and each of
new crime, but rather violating terms of
her students.
parole or falling back into old habits.
“We’re in it for the long haul,” Skvarla
One of her clients calls it the difference
said. “We know there are going to be ups
of opportunity, she said.
and downs. Trust is so important in
“The opportunity for me to become a
business. It’s all about trust.”
drug addict is much lower than someone
As a small staff, Skvarla and her team are
who has a network in that environment
at capacity with 35 students having gone
already,” Skvarla said. “Id o n ’t have
through the program to date. But she’s
(opportunity). I would have to decide that I
working with administrators with other
wanted to do that, I would have to seek it
business programs that teach in prison to
out, I would have to. find it and do it.
improve their programs with the personal
Whereas if you’re living in a place where
development, vetting and pitching process
people are doing that all the time, the
used by Skvarla.
opportunity is always there.”
And the Oregon Department of
Ryan Wallner started stealing when he
Corrections has asked the organization to
was a 6-year-old. Today, he has 13 felonies
take on new students from elsewhere in the
in his criminal history. He’s now serving his
state - transferring inmates to the
third sentence in prison with about a year
Columbia River Correctional Institution
to go.
specifically to take the class. The guidance
“I call it problem-solving class,” Wallner
doesn’t end when students leave prison,
said of A Social Ignition. “I’m trying to do
regardless of whether they intend to start a
stuff differently in my life.”
business or not. The organization’s Long
In addition to the class, Wallner has
Haul program provides individual and small
become an education tutor in the prison
group coaching on specific goals to focus
and helps others get their GEDs. He is
support toward release and beyond.
working to be accountable, “to himself and
“They really are just the same as any of
his brothers and sisters,” he said. But he
us out here,” Skvarla said. “The
feels disconnected.
experiences are much more dramatic but
“I just want to be free,” he said. “I really
the heart and soul are the same.”
just want to be free.”
Jamal Gardner has served more than 10
Wallner’s project with other students is
years for a domestic violence assault He is
developing an apartment complex that will
37, and plans to go to business school. “To
house people in need - people with a
be the venture capitalist I feel like I was
criminal record who can’t find landlords
born to be,” he said with a smile.
who will accept them as tenants. Wallner
Like others in the class, Gardner is
knows the situation personally. The
acutely aware ofthe challenges hgjaces for
previous times he was released from prison, jobs and housing upon his release, but he
he said, he had no place to go.
understands that the difference Will be
“Safe housing is huge/’ Skvarla said. “I
made in baby steps, he said, all leading
knew it was an issue. I didn’t realize how
toward empowerment. He completed his
intense that would be.”
term and Was released Dec. 4.
“We can do things,” he said. “If I want to
change the view of society about felons, I
art of Skvaria’s motivation is her belief
have the power to do that. It is a huge step
in diversity - not just in terms of color
in empowerment. You’re never going to
or ethnicity, but diversity in background and have all of the answers, but you go out and
thought. ’
find them.”
“If we exclude people from the
More information about A Social Ignition’s
discussion, we are excluding a wealth of
programs isavailable at asocialignition.com
creative solutions.”
Joanne Z,uhl is the managing editor o f
Skvarla works one-on-one with the,
Street Roots. joanne@streetroots. org
students throughout the course, and
P
A Blind Society
by'Daniel Cox
Life now flows with a sense of over-convenience,
to make modem lives unproductive and over-privileged,
allowing us to drown as we rest upon our laurels.
We demand things instead of earning and learning.
Greed has replaced creed.
Caution thrown in the wind as we rush to our doom.
Where seeing how the altruistic system,
falling like a machine prone to break down
from lack of maintenance,
an empire is not brought down by outside forces,
but from within.
si reef
@
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»
ESa #OregoniansGive
Albina Community Bank
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Give a donation at giveguide.org or oregoniansgive.org
Visit with Street Roots staff, vendors and sponsors at Albina Community Sank {450 NW tath A v e f
dn ^<jlvin^y?sdoy, Oee. 5 in the FeoH from 9a.m-5p,m,
■ ii Are you
JVetera»"
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Or at risk of
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