Resources
If you are coming home, start here.
This page is for people who have been released, people still inside, and the families waiting on them. You do not need a referral, a caseworker, or a good record to use any of it.
If something on this page is out of date or a door is closed when you get there, tell us. We will find another one.
Right now
Rapid City, SD 57701
Start here
The first week home
Probation gives you roughly thirty days to produce a job and a verified address. These are the things to get moving on immediately, and the ones we can help with directly.
A ride from the facility
We pick people up, including at the community alternatives unit on Highway 79 in Rapid City, and get them where they need to go first.
Call 605-786-7130
Clothes and basics on day one
Two full sets of clothing, shoes, underclothes, plus toiletries, a phone card and gas cards so you can be reached and get around.
Call or email us
Voices, every week
A weekly meeting with a meal for men who have come home. No intake, no fee, no requirement that you be doing well.
Paperwork
ID and documents
Almost nothing else can start without an ID. If you left federal custody you may already have your birth certificate, social security card and ID. If you did not, this is the first thing to fix.
Western South Dakota Community Action
Works with us on the cost of getting a state ID, and has supported our deliveries of books and supplies.
1844 Lombardy Dr, Rapid City
605-348-1460
Help filling things out
Applications, forms and online paperwork, including the ones that are hard to do without an address or a phone.
Call 605-786-7130
Records and legal questions
Questions about your record, expungement or restrictions are worth asking about. We can point you toward legal help.
Ask Connie for a referral
Clothing and supplies
Clothing and basics
You should not have to interview in what you walked out in.
We Care Thrift Store
Works with Connie so the people we serve can take two sets of everything: shoes, underclothes, shirts and pants.
Ask Connie before you go
Winter gear
Coats, gloves, hats and wool socks. South Dakota winters are not survivable in what most people leave with.
Call or email us
Food and phone cards
Food support, and phone cards so an employer, a caseworker or your family can actually reach you.
Call 605-786-7130
Somewhere to live
Housing
This is the hardest one. Probation requires a stable, approved place to live, and a record closes most doors. Ask us before you sign anything or give anyone a deposit.
The landlord list
We keep a working list of rental places in and around Rapid City that will give someone with a record a chance. It is not public, but we will work through it with you.
Call 605-786-7130
Shelters
Shelter beds are sometimes the only immediate option, but drugs and alcohol are present in some of them. If you are trying to stay clean, talk to us first about alternatives.
Ask Connie
Transitional housing
Our long-term project: small, dignified units in Rapid City for people in their first year home, with check-ins and support attached.
Getting hired
Work
Probation wants a job quickly. We work with employers who will consider an applicant with a record, and we help with everything that comes before the interview.
Applications and interviews
Help filling out applications, including online ones, plus rides to interviews and to check-ins you cannot miss.
Call 605-786-7130
Resumes and goals
Building a resume, setting goals you can actually reach, budgeting, and figuring out what comes after the first paycheck.
Ask about mentoring
Businesses that hire
We keep in touch with local businesses willing to consider people coming home. Ask us who is hiring right now.
Ask Connie for current openings
Coming back to it
Culture and ceremony
Whether you are still inside or already home, you can ask for this. It is not an extra. Connie believes it is the part that keeps people from going back.
Sage and cedar
Harvested by hand and delivered into facilities across the state. Requests can come from you, your family or a coordinator.
Call or write to us
Wacipi and inipi inside
We work with facility coordinators on powwows, spiritual conferences and ceremony, including bringing spiritual leaders through the gates.
Ask us how to request one
Circles on the outside
Voices for men, and a women’s talking circle forming now in Rapid City, held with the teachings.
Going further
Education and training
People ask about school more often than you would think, and there is more available to tribal members than most people realize.
Scholarships for tribal members
There are scholarship opportunities for Native students in the Dakotas, and reciprocity between North and South Dakota means enrolled members may qualify across the state line.
Ask Connie who to contact
Trades and certifications
Short training programs often matter more than a degree for getting hired quickly. Ask us what is running locally.
Ask Connie
Other organizations
Connie stays in contact with reentry and recovery organizations across the Dakotas and beyond. If we cannot help, we will try to find who can.
Call 605-786-7130
Alongside us
Affiliate organizations
These are the organizations we work with directly. If we cannot carry what you need, one of them may be able to.
Oaye Luta Okolakiciye
A longstanding Native support organization we work alongside in South Dakota.
Verlyn Long Wolf
605-716-0310
Western South Dakota Community Action
Helps with the cost of state IDs and has supplied books and materials for our deliveries into the facilities.
1844 Lombardy Dr, Rapid City, SD 57703
605-348-1460
V.O.I.C.E.S.
Voices of Indigenous Cultures Empowering Society. Weekly meetings and support for people who have come home.
We list phone numbers only where we can stand behind them. Where a listing says to ask Connie, it is because programs, coordinators and contacts change, and sending someone to a disconnected number or a closed door in a hard week is worse than sending them nowhere. Call us and we will make the introduction ourselves.
For families
If someone you love is inside, this is for you too.
Connie started this work as a mother who did not know how to show up for her own son. She has said plainly that she never wrote to him. You are allowed to not know what to do.
- Ask us how to send sage, cedar or ceremonial materials to someone inside.
- Ask about getting your family to a Wacipi, including transportation.
- Ask what to expect the week your relative comes home, and what to have ready.
- Ask about support for parents, partners and children on the outside.
- Ask on someone else’s behalf. You do not need their permission to ask a question.
When in doubt
Ask us instead of guessing.
There is no wrong way to reach out and no question too small. If we cannot carry it, we will try to find someone who can.
How to reach us
Call 605-786-7130. Connie answers her own phone.
Email connieh272@gmail.com.
Writing from inside? Mail us at 724 Haines Ave, Rapid City, SD 57701.