Nonprofit Receives Grant To Help Women Re-Enter Society After Prison

For decades, the Resonance Center has worked to provide resources to help women, like Sara Townsley, get back on their feet when they get out of prison.

"Honestly, it saved my life,” Townsley said.

When women are released from prison, they face serious challenges and the director of the center, Deidra Kirtley, is dedicated to making sure they can build a new life.

"Just to know they have some place safe and sober they can go live is very reassuring. To know they have got a job waiting for them takes a lot of anxiety away from a very anxious situation,” Kirtley said.

The center was recently given 50,000 dollars from the Bank of America’s Neighborhood Champion initiative.

Kirtley plans to use the money to help their business, Take 2 Café, where their clients can work and develop valuable skills to be successful.

"It's a great place for them to work on their team building and customer service skills and also being around other women that have been released from prison,” Kirtley said. “There's a lot of camaraderie among the women that work there and the customers who come in are very supportive as well."

Roughly 60 women have been employed at Take 2 Cafe since it launched several years ago, including Townsley.

Townsley attributes working with the Resonance Center and being employed at Take 2 Cafe was the chance she needed to turn her life around.

"Now I have a home, I have my children back, I own a car, I have a degree and different things like that. You're helping us rehabilitate and getting off the streets and that right there is teaching us that we don't have to go back to that,” Townsley said.

Kirtley hopes the funding will help employ more women at Take 2 Café.