Operation Fresh Start gets big boost
Cuna Mutual Group donates $50,000
by A. David Dahmer
the Fresh Start Crew holds a $50,000 check from CUNA Mutual
With a grant from the Madison-based CUNA Mutual Group, Operation Fresh Start will be able to help a new crew of a dozen youths build their futures — and a house on Madison’s north side. Operation Fresh Start Executive Director Ferris Bailey made the announcement at a press conference March 6.
Community members met at the Operation Fresh Start headquarters on Winnebago Street on Madison’s near east side to talk about the Fresh Start program, where participants learn construction skills on the job while expanding their goals and planning for college or career futures.
“I’ve emphasized Operation Fresh Start because I believe it works,” said Madison Police Chief Noble Wray. “I believe it connects the issues that we are dealing with here in this community. That is so powerful. It does it in a very restorative way.”
Operation Fresh Start will use the $50,000 grant from the CUNA Mutual Group to fund a new youth team devoted to housing issues in Madison’s Vera Court neighborhood. The grant will help train a crew of 16- to 24-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds to perform rehabilitation and construction activities in the area.
“Madison has paid a great deal of attention to public safety in the last couple of months,” Wray said, speaking about the many public safety forums that have been held, along with meetings with the mayor, the common council, and the police department to talk about crime. “In November, the council approved spending — significant funds to train and equip 30 officers that will hit the street in 2009. This will bring our officer strength up to 439.”
Wray said that while he was happy about the increase in his force, he stressed the need for a comprehensive approach to public safety.
“I believe that investing in more police officers is just part of the answer,” Wray said. “We also need to invest in education, job training, counseling, and human services so that members of our community will have the skills and the support to become and remain self-sufficient as stakeholders in our community.”
That includes, Wray said, services that help disconnected youth become reconnected to the mainstream community — those “approximately 4,000 people in Dane County between the ages of 16 and 25 who are out of work, dropped out of school, and have no plans on returning to school or become employed.”
Young adults gave personal testaments to the power of Operation Fresh Start at the press conference.
”Operation Fresh Start showed me a lot about the construction field and how to maintain my life overall,” said a young man named Joey, who has been with Operation Fresh Start (OFS) for several months.
Joey said that he did a few things before OFS that he has since regretted. “I’ve learned from my mistakes, and it’s made me a better person,” he said. “People might think that I’m a troublemaker because of who I know and who I hang out with, but deep inside I’m a human like you. I just need that chance to show that I can do whatever I put my mind to.”
Ricky, a high school senior, said OFS changed his life in many ways. “Things weren’t going my way, and I was on the wrong path to failure. My grades were slipping and things were going poorly until my counselor told me about OFS,” Ricky said. “I’ve been here for three weeks, and they’ve helped me make choices and changes to better my life. Overall, OFS has given me a second chance on life and an opportunity to be successful. It’s more like a home for me, instead of work. I’m learning with this program, and I’m looking forward to learning more.
Deedra Atkinson, United Way senior vice president of community impact, said that it’s important that we not give up on the youth who have passed age 18 and have not earned their degree. “People in Dane County need to know that helping people like Ricky and Joey and the others here helps us all,” Atkinson said. “It helps the individuals, it helps the community, and it actually helps business.”
Operation Fresh Start, a nonprofit started in 1970 in cooperation with the building trades unions and the justice system, has provided comprehensive employment and training services to 6,000 youth and adults in Dane County. Participants have built and renovated 190 homes in the Madison area. The housing sites are the vehicles for employment training and are at the center of a comprehensive program of educational and support services. Instruction in basic and independent living skills, preparation for the high school equivalency examination, leadership development, counseling, pre-employment skills training, placement in a job or post-secondary education, and supportive follow-up are all vital components of the program.
“The outcome is a self-reliant adult and a safer community,” Wray said.
The new gift will fund construction materials and labor for a home on the 800 block of Troy Drive in Madison’s Vera Court neighborhood. The north side neighborhood has struggled lately, as the number of families on public assistance has increased from60 to 70 percent in recent years. Operation Fresh Start will match a low-income family to the home and help them move in when it is done. CUNA Mutual’s donation will also help the program keep providing services to the youth construction crews.
Many of the students that come to OFS have dropped out of school. Connie Ferris Bailey, executive director, said the grant will be able to provide for another 10 to 15 young people and allow them to totally transform their lives and become self-sufficient.
Steve Goldberg, executive director of the CUNA Mutual Group Foundation, said that CUNA had some financial success in 2007 that they wanted to share with members of the community who weren’t as fortunate. He said that in Dane County it is not an easy decision, because there are so many good nonprofits.
“We knew that we couldn’t make a wrong decision on how to allocate a large sum of money,” Goldberg said. “We felt that Operation Fresh Start is a program that has a strong, strong chance of having a positive impact on the community.”
The idea of making a difference in the lives of at-risk kids was appealing to CUNA.
“What happens here is an enlightened, holistic approach to the individual,” Goldberg said. “We’ve just been blown away by the track record of Operation Fresh Start and the fact that 85 percent of the young people who begin Fresh Start complete it successfully.”
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