The Danville Police Department is excited to recognize the first class of IDDU graduates.
The acronym IDDU stands for Incarceration Doesn’t Define Us. Community Relations Liaison Ashtyn Foddrell created the program to focus on a restorative community that values respect, opportunity, forgiveness, accountability and access for current and previously incarcerated individuals. The program accomplished this with the help of community partners through career coaching, mentorship and readiness skills.
This program helps previously incarcerated individuals integrate back into the community. We believe this will lead to decreased recidivism rates and increased partnerships within the community to create opportunities and support for a successful future.
The 8-week program focuses on two demographics. The first one is with the Adult Detention Center (City Farm) for inmates who have less than a year before they are released back into the community. The second demographic is within the community for people who have been released from jail within the last three years. Both programs run concurrently with the community program on Wednesdays and Adult Detention on Thursdays. The 8-week program is outlined below:
Week 1: Introduction to the Program- Get to Know
Week 2: Job Readiness, Identification Cards
Week 3: Job Readiness Continued and Family and Friend Dynamics and Mental Strength
Week 4: Housing
Week 5: Education- GED, Trade Programming, College, etc.
Week 6: Laws and Possible Consequences- Pass the Perspective between officers and participants
Week 7: Managing Money and Health Care
Week 8: Completion of the Program- Graduation
This is seen as a one-stop-shop program for these returning citizens.
The first IDDU graduation is on Thursday, November 12, 2020, from 5.pm. until 8 p.m. The graduation is at the Pepsi Building located at 629 Craghead Street beside the Community Market in Danville. Participants of the program will receive a certificate for completing the program, a celebration with friends and family invited, and a small gift.