Terri Minor Spencer, second from left, stands on stage at the Pittsburgh Mennonite Church, in Swissvale, with Colorful Backgrounds EXPO graduates William Moulis (left), Luis Jimenez (second from right) and Terrill Weatherspoon on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023. (Photo by Rich Lord/PublicSource)
My experience as an ex-incarcerated person, plus a lot of help from people willing to give me a chance, taught me lessons which I’m sharing with others.
“Can I use your phone?” I asked a lady at the Greyhound Bus Station in Muncy. As she started to hand me her smart phone, I asked: “Can you dial the number? I don’t know how to use that.” Thankfully, she was happy to help.
No one sat next to me on my way home on the Greyhound bus following my release from prison. It was a pretty day, and the greenery of Central Pennsylvania rolled by. But I was nervous. Extremely nervous.
Walking out of the State Correctional Institution Muncy, I felt like I was floating above the sidewalk. Now, with time to think, it hit me: I had spent much of my 20s making mistakes connected to crack cocaine, and much of my 30s locked up. Now I was in my early 40s, thinking and praying: “I hope I don’t mess up again. God, I’ll dedicate this year to you. Just please help me to get myself together.”
But I had no idea how to get myself together. I assumed it would involve a job. But how do I create a resume — especially with my past? If I get an interview, what do I wear? Perfume, or no? What will the interviewer ask, and how should I answer?
I didn’t even know how to use the new phones.
That was more than 15 years ago.
Fast forward to last month
A few weeks ago, on a mid-December evening, I handed certificates to three men, including Terrill Weatherspoon.
Terrill, like me, got in trouble with substances. On that December night, he’d be returning to a halfway house. For two hours, though, we were together with a few dozen people in the basement of the Pittsburgh Mennonite Church, celebrating the graduations of Terrill and three other men from the Colorful Backgrounds EXPO, a program I launched a few years ago.
EXPO stands for Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing. The graduates spent the prior 11 Tuesday nights getting organized, through courses on anger management, mental health, computer literacy, job hunting, money management, civics, leadership, etiquette and criminal record expungement.