A life does not come apart in only one place.

A person walks out with a bus ticket, a paper bag of property, and roughly thirty days to produce a job and a verified address. We try to be at the door before that clock starts. None of this is complicated. It is just that nobody else is doing it.

• Two full sets of clothingShoes, underclothes, shirts and pants, through partner thrift stores that let our people take what they need.
• Rides from the facilityConnie picks people up herself, often at the community alternatives unit on Highway 79.
• State ID and documentsWorking with Western South Dakota Community Action to cover the cost of getting an ID.
• Toiletries, phone and gas cardsThe things that let a person show up clean and stay reachable.

Probation requires a job and a stable, approved place to live, quickly. A record makes both nearly impossible. This is where most people fail, and it is almost never for lack of trying. The city closes a lot of doors on what can be built and where, so we work the doors that are open.

• Applications and interviewsHelp filling them out, including online, and rides to get there.
• Resumes and reachable goalsBudgeting, what it looks like to be a parent again, and finding purpose after a sentence.
• A landlord listA page and a half of rental places that will give someone a chance.
• Transitional housingOur long-term project: small, dignified units with weekly check-ins and real support attached.

This is the part no agency funds, and the part Connie believes keeps people from going back. Cultural grounding is not an extra service here. It is the reason the rest of it holds. Requests come out of the facilities already written, waiting for her.

• Sage and cedarHarvested by hand and delivered to facilities across the state.
• Wacipi inside the wallsPowwows at the facilities, funded by taco and popover sales when nothing else covers it.
• Inipi and talking circlesCeremony brought in where there had been none, especially for the women.
• Spiritual leadersConnie has brought medicine men through the gates, including the late Leonard Crow Dog.

Coming home is not a single day. It is every week after. And it is not only the person released who needs support, but the family who has been waiting, often for years.

• VoicesA weekly meeting with a meal for men who have come home, led by someone who has walked it.
• The women’s circleA talking circle held our way, with inipi and the teachings, forming now in Rapid City.
• Family transportationGetting families to Wacipi, including working with tribal leadership on bus access.
• Support for parentsWhat it looks like to be a parent again, and to be the parent of someone inside.