West · Coming home
Release day
We are at the door with the basics a person needs to be a person again.
- Clothing & shoes
- Rides from the facility
- State ID & documents
- Toiletries & phone cards
Native-led · Rapid City, SD
Wiconi Lecala walks alongside Native men, women and two-spirited people coming home from incarceration in South Dakota.
They come home with a bus ticket and about thirty days to find work, housing and their footing. We meet them at the door with clothing, a ride, an ID, a meal, and a way back to the teachings.
We believe cultural grounding, stability and community support can help a person walk a healthier path, and keep them from going back.
The first thirty days
The door opens, and the clock starts.
Release is not the finish line. A person walks out on long-term probation and is expected to produce a job, an address, and an approved place to live almost immediately. Most have none of the three.
30Days, at most, to find work and a verified place to live, or risk going back.
0Beds set aside for someone leaving with no family and no deposit.
1Phone number most of them are given. For years, it has been Connie’s.
What makes this different
Our work is organized the way our people
have always understood a whole life.
Nothing here stands on its own. Housing without culture doesn’t hold. Ceremony without a paycheck doesn’t hold. We work all four directions at once. That is why a single agency has never been able to solve this, and why Connie’s phone rings at every hour.
What we carry
Four directions of support
Every person who comes home needs all four at once. Here is what each one looks like in practice.
Wiconi Lecala
Walking a New Path
North · Standing up
Work & housing
The two things probation demands, and the hardest two to get with a record.
- Applications & résumés
- Landlords who say yes
- Rides to interviews
- Agency referrals
South · The circle
Family & community
Nobody walks this alone. Not the person inside, and not the family waiting.
- Weekly meetings with a meal
- Talking circles for women
- Family rides to Wacipi
- Support for children
East · Returning
Ceremony & culture
The part no agency funds, and the part that keeps people from going back.
- Sage & cedar, harvested
- Wacipi & inipi inside
- Spiritual leaders brought in
- Ribbon skirts & books
We serve people at facilities in Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Springfield and Pierre, and anyone coming home to the Black Hills.
The woman behind the work
It started with a mother who wasn’t sure how to show up.
When Connie’s oldest son went to prison, she didn’t write. She didn’t know how. Years later, when her youngest went in, her oldest told her plainly that he would go back inside himself to protect his little brother. That was the day she went looking for a support group.
She found one that was about to fold. The president offered it to her, and Connie took it, because leaving those men without a voice would be the same as neglecting them. Since then she has driven the state end to end, harvested sage by the bagful, carried boxes of books into the women’s prison, and brought spiritual leaders through the gates, all while raising grandchildren.
Walking a new path.A phrase given to Connie by a spiritual leader
“Some of them aren’t ready. They put them on long-term probationConnie Hopkins · Founder & Director
and push them out the door. Some go back just because it’s what they know.”
Where a gift goes
Small money moves fast here
No payroll. No building. No overhead department. A gift lands as a tank of gas, a pair of work boots, a bundle of sage, or a plate of food, usually within the week.
$25
A tank of gas
Gets someone to a job interview, or to a probation check-in they can’t afford to miss.
Give $25$75
A homecoming kit
Two sets of clothing, shoes, toiletries and a phone card for one person walking out this month.
Give $75$850
A Wacipi inside
Underwrites one full powwow at a correctional facility: drum, materials, and a day the men are treated like relatives again.
Sponsor
Give monthly. $20 keeps rides running year-round
Choose another amount
Or mail a check: 724 Haines Ave, Rapid City, SD 57701
Wiconi Lecala is a registered 501(c)(3). Your gift is tax-deductible and you will receive a receipt by email.
Other ways to help
A gift doesn’t have to be money.
A box of toiletries, three hours on a Saturday, or an afternoon of your professional skill goes just as far. Here is exactly what we are short on right now.
Goods
- Toiletries
- Gas cards
- Work clothing
- Winter gear
- Food
- Phone cards
- Books
Hands
- Drivers
- Event help
- Sorting
- Meal prep
- Mentoring
- Sage harvesting
- Outreach
Skills
- Grant writing
- Accounting
- Printing
- Design
- Legal
- Employers
- Landlords
The circles
Where people keep showing up
Coming home is not a single day. It’s every week after. Both circles are free, open, and led by people who have walked it.
Voices
A weekly meeting with a meal and honest talk, led by men who have been where the room has been. No intake, no fee, no requirement. Just a chair with your name on it.
The Women’s Circle
A talking circle held our way, with inipi, with the teachings, and with women who understand what it costs to be a mother, a daughter and a relative on the other side of a sentence.
What’s next
Somewhere to sleep that isn’t the shelter.
Our long-term work is transitional housing built for this exact moment: small, dignified units in Rapid City for people in their first year home, with real support attached.
- Secure a site. A convertible building or land the city will approve for transitional use.
- Build small units. Studio-style homes, furnished, safe and sober.
- Attach the support. Weekly check-ins, employment goals, budgeting and cultural life built into the tenancy.
- Move people on. Every resident works toward their own lease, with our landlord list behind them.
Need help?
If you’re coming home, or your relative is, reach out.
You don’t need a referral, a caseworker, or a good record. Tell us what you need and Connie will get back to you herself. We help with clothing, rides, IDs, job applications, housing leads, food and cultural support.
Prefer to call? 605-786-7130
Writing from inside? Mail us at 724 Haines Ave, Rapid City, SD 57701.
Alongside us
- Western SD Community Action
- We Care Thrift
- SD DOC Chaplaincy
- Tribal Leadership
- Local Spiritual Leaders
We partner with employers who hire, landlords who rent, and businesses who give goods or services. Talk to us about partnering.