OOR Cambridge Springs Program Sinking Without
New Funding
OOR Cambridge Springs, the only women's on-the-job
construction training in the community, is losing ground due
to a funding change. The Department of Corrections has
announced that funding will not be available to continue
this five year old program past September 1, 2006. The
reason given was a projected deficit in the overall DOC
budget.
The women's program is modeled after OOR's six male
programs. Five days a week, year round, ten female trainees
ride into the communities of Erie and Crawford counties to
learn the construction trade in an on-the-job training
setting. Their instructor, Greg Scott, has over 24 years of
experience in both residential and commercial construction.Trainees learn more than con- struction skills. Most, for
the first time in their lives, learn how to work together,
accomplish a task, contribute to the community and have a
strong sense of accomplishment and empowerment when being
paroled.
Of those women who have graduated, 78% had jobs at the first
year follow-up and only one has returned to prison. This is
a record of which any inmate program should be proud. |
Cambridge Springs trainees climb scaffolding to work on a roofing
project in Erie.
With the anticipated loss of the female crew, the two year
waiting list for those needing construction services in the
area surrounding SCI Cambridge Springs will lengthen.
Ray Thompson
OOR President |
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Old Building Finds New Use
The women on OOR's SCI Cambridge Springs crew have brought a
special dedication to the renovation project for My Father's
House of Erie. The building will become a transitional living
facility for troubled women and their children, providing
services such as parenting, budgeting, educational and
vocational training.
Although most trainees will be released to other parts of the
state, this type of support would benefit many of them when they
leave the prison system, so they feel a personal connection to
the work as it evolves.
Erie Redevelopment donated the structure to My Father's House
from a list of "blighted" properties. Built in 1840, a section
was added in the 1920's. The OOR crew 's first task was to add
roof support before framing walls on the second floor, which is
being divided into apartments. They then installed and finished
dry wall. Their work also included installing kitchen cabinets,
trim, baseboard and other woodwork finishing.
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