Keeping it Real

Last week, I drove up to San Francisco to do a photo shoot for Goodwill at their headquarters on Mission Street for a program they have called “Back on Track.”

“Back on Track” was created as a partnership between Goodwill and the DA’s office in San Francisco as an attempt to alleviate the number of first time drug offenders who keep on offending. [California has the highest number of recidivism rates. Sixty to seventy percent of criminals sentenced to California state prisons will re-offend within 3 years of their release!!]

After being in the DA’s office for a few years myself, I was very frustrated by how the prison system is so clearly not working. We put so many people in prison, with no rehabilitation, and waste so many resources. So- I was really excited to hear about this program.

Anyway- if you are a first time drug offender, the DA office gives you an option of getting into a couple of programs- including “Back on Track.” The person commits to 1 year, and if they pass, they get the offense taken from their record. They ask the person what trade they want to train in (trucking, merchandizing, office work), and then the person is trained in that specialty for a year. Goodwill then helps them get a “real” job so that they can start contributing to the workforce in real ways.

Although this may seem easy- just imagine if you were getting paid thousands of dollars for selling drugs, and now you are getting paid minimum wage to do real work? It is a huge sacrifice and struggle for these people.

The success of this program is amazing- only 10%!!! of these people actually re-offend after getting in the program- that is a 40-50% drop from normal!

So, I was “hired” to take photos of the “star” members of their program. We took photos of them doing what they are getting trained in—in the store working on customer satisfaction, in a truck, in a hospital, in the office.

It was really touching. I was so proud of them. And, was very humbled.

My world is very privileged in comparison to many. Most everyone I spend time with is of the same socio-economic background, and for the most part are doing ok.

But- it was very different/shocking to be on the city street that morning with people of all walks of life in sobering circumstances.

I’m really glad that I had this experience and that it reminded me of how lucky I am. Here are a couple of pics that make me smile.