Help with a new start By Madeleine O'Neill

Phillip Bibbs is ready for "a nice little cubby hole" to call his own.

He wants to be able to kick off his shoes inside the door of his own place and watch his own TV. He also wants to find a job.

But because Bibbs is transitioning back into the community from his most recent stay in prison, those goals come with extra obstacles.

Bibbs, 40, is receiving intensive case management from the Erie County Re-Entry Services and Support Alliance for help managing those obstacles. He began working with an ECRSSA case manager not long after leaving the State Correctional Institution at Albion in November.

He is one of 99 people who has received some form of case management from ECRSSA, which assists ex-offenders as they navigate their re-entry into society from prison, since it began offering the

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service in October, said Sheila Silman, ECRSSA's program manager.

Having support from a case manager has made a difference, said Bibbs, who has served time in prison before and had difficulty transitioning from prison to the community.

"Coming out in the past ... you're really on your own," he said. "You run into a brick wall real quick."

Most recently, Bibbs served just over two years at SCI Albion after he was revoked due to a parole violation in an underlying 2010 theft case, according to court records. He was paroled again Nov. 14 and has been living at the Erie Community Corrections Center, 137 W. Second St., while he seeks out housing and a job.

"Right now it's a whole lot better," he said of his most recent transition from prison. "We have people actually trying to help and listen to what's going on in your life as you're trying to make this transition back into the community."

ECRSSA offers two categories of assistance, Silman said - intensive case management, for those who are eligible, and resource coordination, a lesser form of support in which clients who are ineligible for intensive case management get short-term assistance connecting with resources.

Since ECRSSA first began offering case management Oct. 12, 99 clients have received either intensive case management or resource coordination services, Silman said. Sixty-five clients are now receiving intensive case management, and 34 have gotten help through resource coordination, she said.

Intensive case management is available to former inmates who lived in Erie County at the time of their offense, are returning here after serving their prison sentence, and are considered to be at risk of committing repeat offenses based on their history, Silman said.

ECRSSA will perform intakes for inmates while they are still in prison, and will also accept qualified men and women who have been out of prison for fewer than six months. Intensive case management is intended to last for six months to a year, although it can last longer, Silman said.

Recipients work with one of ECRSSA's three case managers - Michael Outlaw, who works with Bibbs; Kaitlin Dolak; and Jessie Tate - to get matched with appropriate services that are available in the area.

Those services can include help with housing, employment, transportation, mental health or drug treatment and other necessities that can be challenging or overwhelming for people returning from prison to access.

ECRSSA's goal "was to not recreate the services that we have in our community," Silman said, "but to take them and have us as the point person."

Silman said it's too early to tell whether the intensive case management service will reduce recidivism among ECRSSA's clients - a key goal of the program - but that information is being tracked.

The re-entry program was born of the Unified Erie anti-violence campaign, which has taken a three-pronged approach of prevention, enforcement and re-entry in curbing violence in the community.

Unified Erie sought funds for the program, which arrived in July in the form of a $1.2 million grant from the Erie Community Foundation and the United Way of Erie County. The funding was provided to the Greater Erie Community Action Committee, which oversees ECRSSA's re-entry services and Erie's call-in program, another anti-violence initiative propelled by Unified Erie that was organized through ECRSSA.

The grant funding enables ECRSSA to offer its case management services free of charge.

Tate, one of the ECRSSA case managers, said he works with clients to identify their needs, which can differ from person to person. The case managers can also end up acting as counselors for the clients, who can feel defeated when they struggle after leaving prison, he said.

"Even though we're not counselors, some things just go along with a job," he said. "Some of them just want to call and talk. They may be down or whatever, they just want to call and talk and get uplifted."

Tate said he believes the program will reduce recidivism.

"A lot of guys getting out of jail, they run into all the obstacles and they give up hope," he said. "We'd like to show them that there's other avenues that we can take, and we can support them in those avenues."

Bibbs is working to find housing. He is a lifelong Erie resident and has family in the area, but he is determined to live independently.

"At this point in time, it's kind of difficult for me because I want to do things for myself," Bibbs said. "I'm 40 years old. I don't need to be under anybody else's roof."

He is hoping to leave ECCC, the halfway house where he is living, as soon as possible, he said. He shares a room with three other men there and is looking forward to the freedom of his own place to live.

He is also working with Outlaw, his case manager, to find a job that will help pay for his own living space. Outlaw helped Bibbs develop a resume and practice before a recent interview for a summer painting job, which Bibbs is waiting to hear back about.

And, perhaps most importantly to Bibbs, ECRSSA has given him a place to visit and people to talk to when he feels unsure about his future.

"I just met a nice group of people that is willing to help me out," Bibbs said. "I know I can move further in my transition once the puzzle starts being put together."

Madeleine O'Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNoneill.

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