This is the Truth Network. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Uh She's real fine, my 409. She's will find my Yeah. Welcome to the Christian Car Guy Radio Show.
I say this calls for action and now. Good morning. You might expect this to be Robbie Dilmore, and you'd be wrong. Robbie is in the Holy Lands that has entrusted me with his show, The Christian Car Guy. I have some wonderful guests on, and I hope you enjoy this time as much as I do.
First, we have Mark Hogsad from the Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry. He's our director. You've been there three years now? Style. Golly, I'm getting old.
And then we've got Denita. Denita Mitchell is the program director from the YWCA female substance abuse program called Hollyhouse. Good morning. Good morning, Mr. B.L.
And they have a new program, Hollyhouse 2, and then Project Newstart. And they are part of the YWCA, and they have one of their directors with us, Joanne. Thank you for joining us. I'm Casey Wiles, Director of Development at the YWCA. Thank you so much for having us.
Maybe I'll get my brain here better. Steve Wood is one of our school board members, but he also comes in Sunday morning at prison with me sometimes and is a godsend. The guys love it when he comes in and plays. Say hello to everybody, please, sir. Hello to everybody, please, sir.
He is fun to minister with. Danita, folks, you have a really interesting program. Would you please explain what type of ladies end up in Holly House and how that process works, please? Sure, Mr. Bill, and thank you again for having us here.
We serve women 18 and over. Who have found themselves with the disease of addiction. We are a six to twelve month program. We're the only state licensed facility in Forsyth County. for women of substance abuse.
as well as they have core current mental health. The services that we provide are substance abuse counseling. trauma counseling, Uh peer support. And um we as well we um Provide transportation to all appointments.
Now, how long is the program? How long is the lady in um Hollyhouse?
So they can be there from six to nine, twelve months. And then once they're off their feet, they've got a job, they've got some mi a little bit of money saved, what happens to them after Holly House won?
So after Hollyhouse won, they are able to go into independent living, where we do find this barrier today where women Because of their backgrounds, it's hard to get affordable housing. And that's how Holly House 2 came into play. We felt like we would give them that space to go somewhere where they can have affordable. Rent and get into maybe the ESR program to become home ownership. What's ESR?
Experiment Self-Reliance. And that's a program the Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry works with sometime, right? We have in the past, yep.
Now, folks may not realize that they think there's all kinds of affordable housing, but that might not be true. That is true, Mr. Bea. Depending on their income, the affordable housing of $1,200 to $1,300 a month. It's not affordable for our clients.
And how much income do you have to have to be able to rent a $1,200. One bedroom apartment, and not the best part of town. I would say at least making $30,000.
So you gotta make at least three times your rent generally to qualify. And then you've got a lot of people ahead of you that may have good credit. Or better than average credit, and they never have had a problem with a landlord before.
So, as I understand it, if you ever gotten a problem, And you walked away from paying that landlord, the landlord puts you on a list that makes it almost impossible to find another landlord that will work with you. That is correct. That is correct. You know, it amazes me when the guys come out of jail or prison, when the ladies come out of jail and prison, personally, I don't want to pay for them to go back. I want them to come out and to be successful.
But being successful after you get out of jail or prison can be really complicated, right, Mark? It's really complicated. And, you know, the average recidivism rate in North Carolina is about 45%. What do you mean by that?
So, when I say 45% recidivism rate, that means somebody coming out of prison in North Carolina is 45% likely to return to prison within three years after their release. And that number is considerably higher after three years, isn't it? It can be for sure, if those basic things aren't addressed, like housing, transportation, steady employment, those types of things. We had a. A police chief in town a long time ago that came in and talked to a group I was listening to.
He said, if people don't find Christ in jail, in prison, the chances of them being successful after they get out is almost zero.
Now, Holly House has a group that goes in and you you work with the young ladies in the jail, correct? Yes, through the Project New Start program. Ms. Joanne Goodson, she goes into the jail as well as myself and Roxanne Kelly have been trained for. the ministry.
So it's a a great way to uh find Christ um Do those um Bible studies. We had one young lady who came through Project Newstart as well as the data program, District Attorney Treatment Alternative, and then entered ARCA. and then from there she came to Holly House. She's doing well now. She's completed the data program.
She's graduated that. She's graduated from Holly House. She has employment and she's reunited with her daughter. Steve, do you know anything about the program the DA set up to work with folks to Better their life? I don't know specifics, Bill.
I've heard of the program, but I don't know the specifics about it. Are you up to date on it, Mark, by chance? Our district attorney is a great district attorney, and he wanted to help those that said and stated and were sure that they wanted to make changes in their life and to get things better, and sort of streamline the process for them to get out and streamline the process to help them find help with the idea that if a certain amount of love and care was delivered to some of the folks, that it might make them help them change their life. Casey, you work with the YWCA. You're what I call a cup rattler, right?
That's exactly right. That's a really good way to put it. What all do you do? I'm the development director at the YWCA, and I work very closely with Danita and the Hawley House. And you were talking about recidivism earlier.
Through this project, Newstart, we serve. We visit with about 30 women each month in the prison. That's hundreds of women throughout the year. If those women come to Holly House and graduate, the recidivism rate is about 99%.
So hardly anybody returns to prison after they complete Holly House.
So we're very, very proud of that statistic. Yeah, that I was doing some jail ministry and one time came out of what Bible study I was leading and this young lady came up to me in tears and just convinced me that she needed a ride to her sister's place and like a complete idiot, I said, sure. And I got her in my car and as I'm driving, I'm thinking, this may be the dumbest thing you've ever done in your entire life. And we get out and about 30 minutes later, I'm getting about the third or fourth crazy story. And at the end of that, I said, this is never going to happen again.
And I was praying and praying and praying. And I came into the YWCA. It smells a lot better, fellas. It's really, if you got a chance to either join the YM or the YW, I highly recommend the YW. And I was coming in and they were having a luncheon, and it was a Hollyhouse luncheon.
And I went in and sat and listened, and this wonderful lady was talking about all the good that they did. And afterwards, I came up and I said, Look, I know how to help a young man that really wants to change his situation. We've got all kinds of tools in this county, but I'm clueless how a young mother with one or two children. And no income can straighten her life out. If I bump into somebody like that, can I call you?
As she said, absolutely. And we sort of sent folks back and forth. I was amazed when I got in and saw all the love and compassion and care that Holly House did. Yeah, how many ladies do you work with at one time? About we have nine beds at the Holly House, and we do all kinds of therapy.
We do trauma counseling, of course, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous. We do peer support counseling, and it's the only program in Forsyth County for women that's run by women with lived experience. I think that's very important to point out. It's just a limited resource. We're talking about nine beds in Forsyth County.
Okay, so you've got Holly House and Holly House 2. How many in those two categories? Holly House 2 is a transitional home. After you graduate from Holly House, you can. Qualify to move into Holly House 2, which has room for three women.
Three. And then you've got Project New Start, and it's touching, I mean, I would get 100 people. Around 400 a year. Because it's about 30 a month, we speak to? That is just an unbelievably large number of people that are not.
going back through the jail and prison ministry who are becoming better and better mothers and are in a position to become great employees and assets to our community. And it is amazing to me how much good Holly House has done for our county. Stay tuned. We want to talk a little bit more after the break. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com.
Uh Welcome back. We're so glad you're here. We have the most wonderful group of guests on today. We've got Mark Hodson from the Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry. A lot of our audience has absolutely no idea what a really great jail and ministry is.
In some areas, the state pays for a chaplain, and the chaplain is a rather interesting character. I remember hearing a story about one that had a little sign on his desk that said, please don't embarrass you or me by asking for anything. But in our county, we've got how many churches support the Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry now? Nearly 100 in some capacity. And our county and the surrounding county, and how many volunteers do we have that go into the jail?
Well, between the jail and the prison, about 350 right now. We had a new Director of the prison that came up from Texas who said after he'd been here a year that he finally believed that we had that many volunteers, that he was absolutely sure everybody lied to him for 12 months until he actually showed up some of the meetings. Because people actually have to ask to come in, have to get trained, and then they have to get on their knees and pray that they get one of the many slots we've got for jail and prison ministry or Sunday service. That's exactly right. And let me say this too, Bill.
We are very fortunate. We partner with the jail and we partner with the prison. We're not employees of either facility, but our ministry is so very, very. Blessed to have great leadership at both facilities that encourage volunteerism, encourage our programs. Very rarely are we told no, that we can't do something.
Of course, we take safety and security very seriously, but our goal, Bill, and our mission is simply to share Christ's love and forgiveness with the goal of transforming lives and ending the cycle of crime and punishment. Everything comes down to that. Every program we do, every volunteer that comes in, everything is about sharing Christ's love and forgiveness. That may look like a worship service, that might look like a Bible study. I have great volunteers that come in and teach pickleball every week at the prison, but they're also sharing Christ's love and forgiveness because just a game of pickleball can lead to a spiritual conversation.
We have over 20 Bible studies every week right now at the jail with some incredible churches and volunteers that do that.
So we're just very, very grateful for the opportunity to have a robust Jail and prison ministry here in Forsyth County serving over 1,100 incarcerated individuals. The vast majority of those are men. We have an all-male prison here, and then we have the jail with both men and women, about 90% men at the jail, and about 10% women.
So we're grateful to provide ministry services to them every day.
Now, Steve, you come into the prison and help with the Sunday morning service. Tell the audience a little bit about the gentleman and the quality of the folks in that room. It's always amazed me. It it amazes me too, Bill, and I thank you for the opportunity to uh be here today and to talk about uh that ministry Um The last time that I spoke, and I was there on a Sunday morning, uh a gentleman came up to me. after the after the service.
And so we had a conversation, and he was very candid in talking about his life. And so I asked him, you know, why he was here. And his statement to me that that just about knocked me down, knocked me backwards, Mark, was he said And I asked him how long he had been here. He said, This is my first visit to Persythe. But he had been maybe in Spendale, North Carolina, facility up uh in the western part of the state.
And he said, I'd heard about Forsyth Prison Ministry. And so I put in a request for a transfer. And he said, usually people have to wait three, four, five, six months, maybe a year before they can get a transfer. He said, I put in my request, and within the month, I was here. And this is my first morning, my first day here.
And I s uh I asked him, I said, well May I ask why you're here, why you're in this facility. He said, um That's the story. That's how I got here. When he came to talk uh to talk to me. I could see his eye his eyes.
His eyes were as clear He was clear-headed in his conversation. And I said, Well, how long have you been in prison?
Now, this is what got me. I said, How long have you been in prison? He said fifty, fifty. Three Years. and I asked him again.
I said You said you've been in prison for fifty three years. And I said, I don't guess I have to ask you a question about how you got here. He said, no, the answer to that's pretty obvious. He was originally sentenced to a death sentence, and he spent about 20 years. on death row and then his mother passed away.
After he had been in prison about 20 years, and so he requested if he could go to her services and that sort of thing. And The word got out about what a good prisoner he had been, and so. The governor commuted not the entire sentence, but the commuted his death sentence. And he said, If I'd never gotten if I had never gotten To prison, if I'd never been in jail, I would never have found Christ. And I thought, what an amazing story.
Yeah, the Our prison Our Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry, they do a lot to help the guys plan on getting out and to be successful when they get out. Yeah, with City with Dwellings, which is a program in town that works with the homeless, we will have folks that were let out by the jail and prison system that never served a day in Forsyth County, have absolutely no family in Forsyth County. And they come in. And you sort of try to figure out how in the world do you get somebody that's been incarcerated for 10 years. And help them get plugged in to make enough money to have a place to stay.
It is. Bizarre. Put yourself in the place Of making a mistake. And I gotta say, there were times in my life if the police had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, I could have been serving some time myself. If you serve the time and you get out, you don't want to go back.
Mm-hmm. People don't commit that next crime because they want to go back. It's because they don't have the vaguest idea where to go to get a meal and a place to stay and some clothing. The ladies have a particularly hard time because they have very limited options when they get out if they don't have a support network. What have you seen, Danita?
Yes, Abi, that's a great question. Once they get to Holly House, we connect them with resources. As far as um Vocational rehabilitation. Goodwill, Project Re-entry. We have the downtown health plaza that supports us to get with that physical health.
And um We want to remind folks that we love that you tune in and listen, that you pray for the needs that are brought up. We want all of you to be thinking about putting these organizations on your prayer list. We also want you to check in your community to see if there's some similar. You're listening to The Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com. Uh Welcome back.
We're so glad you're part of our audience. We appreciate the prayers that you extend to the station and to Robbie's show. And I ask you to. prayerfully consider putting the Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry on your prayer list and Holly House on your prayer list. More important than that, a lot of you do not live in this county, and I want to encourage you to call your public library or call 311.
311 and ask them if there is a prison jail program in your area or if there's a program for women because you need to add them to your prayer list and call them up and say, I would love to come tour your facility. I don't really want to do much more than find out about you, but I would like to be able to be an advocate for you. Can I come in and see exactly what you do? And if there's a way for me or my Sunday school class or my friends or my Girl Scout group or a way for us to get plugged into something we absolutely know that Jesus would have us do. Steve was a minister with a friend's church, which I always heard they sat around and looked at each other until somebody felt like talking.
So I always thought the best job in ministry was to be a minister of a friend's church. But he is a great guy, and I'm sure he's got a few words to share with.
Well, Bill, the. There's an old um Poem or line I used to hear that said, To live above with the ones we love, that will be glory. but to live down below with the ones we know. That's another story.
So we know that we encounter Lots of different people in this life from all walks of life. from the uttermost to the guttermost. And When I think about The prison ministry that's here, and in other locations all throughout the country. I get so excited. Many people say experience is the best teacher.
But In my opinion, I think the line that says My last your last mistake is your best teacher. And many of the residents of the prison. They will often say I'm so glad I got here Because I never would have found my way to Christ if I hadn't been here.
Now, that's an amazing thing for someone to say. I remember in the story of Zacchaeus in the New Testament. Zacchaeus was the richest guy in town, He was one of the most influential guys. He probably lived in the biggest house in town, wore the best clothes in town, and that sort of thing. But Jesus is coming through town, and he climbs a tree.
He climbs up in a tree because the Lord wanted to see. You know, we used to sing that song in school. We come to Christ in lots of different ways. And what's amazing is the Forsyth of a prison ministry. And others throughout the country like it, as I said, it's amazing how.
that venue becomes the spot or the place or the time in their life that changes their life. And it's such an exciting thing to be a part of that as an individual. And to have your church or your denomination involved in it as well. And I look forward to. Every time.
where I get a call from uh Bill. And he's saying, Steve Next Sunday, are you busy next Sunday? But every time I have an opportunity to share uh like that, it it's sent And the men that you meet is just an amazing thing. And most of them say, I would never have come to Christ if I hadn't been here. There They're on their way.
They're on their way home. They're on their way out. They're happy to get out and to Is a volunteer path in their own lives. That's just an amazing thing, Bill. Thank you very much.
I was a little scared when you said that you were concerned when I called you. It went in a better direction than I was afraid it would go. You know, this is the time of year when we're looking at how well we've done, how well the money's gone up in our different retirement accounts, how much extra has come in, and we've got to decide what to do with it.
Now, by all means, if the kids need shoes or a present, you need to do that. But if you've got a little bit extra, There's some different places you might consider if you caught up on your church tithe.
Some of the things you can do is to make a difference in the lives of those that are getting out of jail and prison. Why would you want to do that?
Well, you don't want to pay for them to be in there. I've told many an inmate that all the people I know would much rather they be out with a good job, a nice family, making good money, and complaining about how much their taxes are than going back in and me having to pay. How much are we paying to incarcerate somebody these days? That's almost $40,000 a year. You know, why do we want to spend $40,000 a year to constantly feed somebody inside a facility like that?
Um A Holly House has always got needs. There are all kinds of programs that they'd like to do. There are all kinds of ways they'd like to lift up the ladies that they're working with. And they've got a hundred ladies that are doing everything right, but they don't have extra money for their kids. You need to consider putting these organizations on your prayer list and then calling the organizations and to say, is there some way I can help you raise some money?
Or, if you've got a little bit extra, if you're sweeping up after you figure out where all that money goes. Send some money. Um Casey? Tell a little bit about what you do for the YWCA and let folks know you do a whole lot more than just watch people exercise. I do a lot more than that, actually.
Yes, I'm the director of development at the YWCA, and that includes Holly House and three other amazing programs here in our county, in our community.
So, my job is to raise money for the agency through community support, corporate support, individual support, and churches, grants, foundations, all of it. I'm responsible for raising those funds. We are not alone in that we have experienced pretty large funding cuts from some of our major funders over the last couple of years.
So, having to make up that difference has been a real challenge for us. If you can't make a donation financially, we always have ways that you can donate items. We have an Amazon wish list on our webpage, the Holly House website, where you can go on at any time. and buy these items and they will be sent directly to the Holly House women. And it helps.
It helps them get settled into their new place and helps everybody have what they need while they're at the Holly House. You know, there are all kinds of programs that the Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry does. I assume you still take Christmas presents to the inmates? We do. In fact, this coming Saturday, a week from today, we'll have our In the Name of the Father Christmas program.
It's a family builder program where. We invite children of incarcerated individuals at the Cherry Street Prison and a caretaker to come into the prison and celebrate Christmas with their dad. The community, local churches, businesses, individuals provide gifts. For those kids, we bring them into the chapel building there. The men.
At Cherry Street, they can shop for gifts they'd like to give their kids. We have volunteers come in and wrap those gifts. And then we all get together, like I said, next Saturday we'll do this and we celebrate Christmas. We have the story of Christmas presented by a local church, and then we have some food, and then we have Santa Claus come out and he'll give gifts, and the kids can open those gifts in front of their dads. And we just have a wonderful, wonderful time, all made possible by the local community, which we're so, so grateful for.
You know, something that really amazed me. You get arrested, you get pulled down to the jail, and then they give you all this shampoo and all this soap, and they give you clean underwear, and they give you paper and pencil to write home. Is that how it works, boss? We do have a little bit of that, but you know, if you ask anybody, they'll say I'll give up all the shampoo and the paper and all that if I can just go home for Christmas.
Well, my point is that they don't get any of those things from the state.
So they come in, can you imagine being arrested after whatever you did that got you arrested? And then not have access to soap or shampoo or toothpaste. Um And try to figure out how in the world to be human. In our community, we've got an organization, a church. the dwelling that provides showers for people that are homeless.
And they've got a trailer for people that are homeless to take a shower in. And then we've got one facility in town that I know of where a homeless person can go and get it. Get a shower. It just amazes me. What it would do to my head to be in that situation.
But the Forsyth Jail and Prison Ministry gathers a collection from churches and organizations and individuals so that at Christmas they can at least take the people a little bit of reading material, some soap, some shampoo, some sh um toothpaste and toothbrush You have no idea how much difference that makes. It makes a big difference. And we feel like, Bill, that's a way that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus. You know, we're commanded to visit those and work with those who are in prison by Christ. And so we take that very seriously.
That's a way we can share the gospel in a very tangible way. And Bill, we invest in these men at the prison and men and women at the jail while they're incarcerated because at some point they're going to be returning to our community.
So we have the choice to invest in them while they're incarcerated. or leave them alone and we'd rather invest in them because we want them to be successful on the outside. You know, your chaplains in your local jail and prison may not have access to Bibles. They may not have access to soap. They may not have access to shampoo.
They may not have access to toothpaste. Call them up and ask them if your organization can bring the chaplain. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Uh We are so glad that you're part of our listening audience. I've got a dear friend on the phone, Dr.
Brittany Speed. Dr. Speed is an emergency room doctor who has managed and worked in emergency rooms from Alaska to our outer banks. And I asked her to come in this morning and share with us the importance of donating blood under our nation's Greatest Period of time where there's a shortage, we need more blood. Good morning, Speedy.
Good morning. How are you doing, Bill?
Well, with you being on, I am fabulous. I would love for you to tell us a little bit about why we need to give blood. Sure, the pleasure is all mine. Good morning, everybody. Why is blood donation important?
I reckon, is what you'd like me to start with. But it's simple.
Now Amazon Prime is great, but we haven't figured out yet how to Amazon Prime a blood transfusion, so we rely on the public a lot to give us donations. It's quite a big need. Every day we need more and more blood, and we'll use it in so many different situations that you may not think of initially. Most people think of the trauma patient, somebody who comes in bleeding out, sure. But it's used for many different types of patients, sickle cell patients, childbirth, miscarriages, and complications from childbirth.
Even people who are receiving dialysis or have chronic anemia or low red blood cells require blood donations frequently. blood disorders and cancer treatment patients, burn patients, these are all people that benefit from either red blood cells or the components of the red blood cell itself. You know, my daughter had leukemia, and it was amazing to me how much blood they went through to treat her. Yes, that's actually quite a common patient who receives donations. There's young people, old people who are getting diagnosed with cancers and leukemias of the blood all the time.
Some people as young as babies or two-year-olds who require transfusions for the foreseeable future, you know, will require blood donations. Sickle cell folks require transfusions often every six weeks to remain painless enough for a functional life. And not only those people, but you never know what can happen. You could be a trauma patient the next day and really think back on if there's enough blood for you.
So it's really nice to be able to feel like you can give back to the public or potentially your future self if you just. Go donate some blood.
Now, you just got a great big 55-gallon jug of blood in the back of the ER, and you just scoop out what you need.
Okay. I wish it were that easy. That would make it a lot easier. Getting the blood to the emergency department in a timely manner is sometimes a challenge in itself, but that's another topic. Certainly.
Red blood cells is what most people think about when there's donation of blood, but it's not just the red blood cell itself. There's plasma, which is the liquid part. platelets which help with the clotting part. And so you can donate many different types. When you go for a blood donation, you can give your red blood cells.
You can give a lot of red blood cells. You can give the plasma part, and we can separate out the platelets. Red blood cells typically only last 42 days, unfortunately, so that's why it's really important that we are continuously replenishing that stock.
so that we have fresh red blood cells for people. And plasma and platelets we keep up to a year frozen so that we can give it to folks. Of course, that has to be thawed before we can give it in an emergent manner.
So knowing that we have that stash, especially at some of the smaller hospitals, is really important.
So a typical emergency room sees how many patients, and you make a number up, in a nine. Oh, and a nice. Depends on where you're working, honestly, but fifty is a good shot. Smaller ER is, of course, less. How many of those would need a blood product to be able to survive?
Oh gosh.
Well I don't know if I have a percentage number for you, but I can say that over the past two weeks that I've worked, I've done a few transfusions alone, and that's just me. It's definitely a relevant thing in our practice. We do it if not every shift. every week and that's just me. Certainly, every day there's a transfusion in the emergency department by somebody in every department, I'd say.
So without it, there are people that would not survive if there was not a source for your blood products to help. with their recovery. Oh, without a doubt. It is it's something you don't think about until you need it. You know, we don't think about as common folks about bleeding out on the daily, but it really does make a difference, and there are people that will die without blood products.
trauma patients, uh sickle cell patients. People with illnesses that require plasma even, the liquid part, burn patients. They need that. I guess you could call it medicine, but that is their medicine for life. That is their medicine for survival, is that blood product that they need to continue living or to recover from a traumatic injury or what it be?
Now it amazes me how few people are willing to go down and take what, 20 minutes, maybe 40 minutes and to give their blood. Is it because they have to cut the end of the finger off and drip it into this big bottle? Yes. Have you heard of bloodletting? The old razors are yet.
Yeah, I can get out the old white coat and the big beak mask. We can go plague style if you'd like. Tell people a little bit about the process of getting the bloodletting. Sure, I am surprised actually, and I would love to see more, you know, we could talk about that later, available sites to GiveBlood because it is so simple and you actually benefit a lot from it.
So typically you'd go down and the whole process itself maybe takes 45 minutes to an hour, 15 minutes depending. The actual donation itself takes from anywhere from 8 to 10 minutes. And I know, thank you for your services, Bill, that you've been doing this quite a lot, so you can comment. But about 8 to 10 minutes is the actual donation, maybe an hour of your time. And what they'll do is they'll actually sit you down, screen you, get your temperature, your blood pressure, your pulse.
So you kind of get a mini medical screening, which is really excellent for people. And not only do they do that, but they check your hemoglobin levels, which is your how many red blood cells you have in your blood, your iron levels. They check and screen for sickle cell disease. And now they're even checking for A1C. which is a diabetic marker.
So if you're concerned that you may have diabetes or be pre-diabetic, you can go give blood. And if your A1C is different in a dangerous manner or in a concerning manner, they will let you know. And you can track all of that on the app or online. It's super easy to make an account. They screen for HIV, hepatitis, syphilis, and other blood-borne diseases and pathogens.
So to me, it's kind of a win-win. You get to give back to your community. You get to give to your family or future self that may need this and to your community. And you get this screening for free. It's an hour of your time.
They take about a pint of your blood, which is. About eight to ten percent of your total blood. Storage per se.
So you're giving 8% of yourself that day, but you recover in about 24 to 72 hours. You can return to walking that day. They give you some nice snacks and refreshments afterwards. And then it really should make you feel good about what you did that day. And you know you're helping somebody out there that's in really big need of something that you could so easily give.
And you'll recover in no time.
Well, just think of all the calories you give up in that donation. It's like being able to eat an entire Thanksgiving meal with the calories that you give up, right? Yeah, that would be spectacular if we could make it the new diet out of here. Come let us strip your calories. I always thought those were the commercials that they needed to broadcast.
Thank you so much. I'm going to have you in on the next show, too. But we did want to cover a couple other topics. You're always a pleasure to spend time with. Thank you for being there for me.
Of course. Thank you, Bill. And you guys have a lovely day. Yes, ma'am. Mark, you wanted to talk about the reentry program?
Sure. Bill, so we have a transition to work re-entry program out of the Cherry Street Prison for men coming out of prison. Cherry Street's a minimum security facility, so the men that are incarcerated there at some point in the next few years are on their way home.
So we spend two years preparing them for return to society.
So we have a very robust pre-release program with a series of classes and spiritual development. And then post-release, if they finish the pre-release program, post-release we're going to help them find housing. As we know, housing, especially for formerly incarcerated, is very difficult to find.
So we help them find transitional housing. We'll pay for it for a couple of months. We'll help them with transportation and finding a job and whatever type of counseling that they may need. But a new initiative that has borne out of the transition to work program is our reentry center, which we're hoping to launch in April. We've secured a building for that not far from the prison, and we're going to be offering Offering transitional housing, space for classes for formerly incarcerated individuals to go through some of the pre-release classes that they already took.
They can repeat that. It's just a way for us to help them transition well. As they move back into society.
So, we're very excited about our reentry center. You can jump on our website, fjpm.org, and hear more about that. And also, if you'd like to volunteer, give us a call: 336-759-0063. We'd love to chat more. We want to thank you for tuning in.
I'm asking you, please consider putting these organizations on your prayer list if. You're praying, and you ask God, Is there any reason I shouldn't help an organization like this in my community? And you hear God say, No, we'd like to hear from you. What I hope is that most of you will hear yes, at least find out a little bit more information.
