Looking to help justice-involved individuals, create jobs, and provide services and products, Queens Economic Development Corporation has joined forces with Witness to Mass Incarceration, a nonprofit that serves individuals affected by the legal system and their family members.
As such, WITNESS Founder and Executive Director Evie Litwok is now QEDC’s Director of Reentry Services. Working out of QEDC’s Entrepreneur Space in Long Island City, her associates and she will provide a wide array of services to help former inmates achieve long-term employment success.
Thanks to a four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Justice facilitated by Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, QEDC and WITNESS will soon launch The Art of Tailoring. Over the course of two years, experts will teach clients how to make and repair clothes and then support them through pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, and incubation in the industry. They’ll also establish a cooperative model so clients can sell their products online and at markets.
The Baked and Pastry Arts program will hire Chef Fresh (aka Pastry Papi) to teach clients culinary arts. Then via a similar cooperative agreement, they will work as a team to pitch their services to coffee shops and other small stores. Then, they’ll carry out the production and distribution efforts.
The third fledging program, Sewing Machine Technology, will hire an expert repairman to teach clients how to fix 30 different types of sewing machines and then find employment in the clothing industry.
All three programs include additional instruction on such topics as marketing, taxes, and computer applications.
“We’re going to help an overlooked community with a new model,” Litwok said. “We’re going to get people into careers they want — and stay with them until they can stand on their own. What we’re doing is transformative.”
Litwok, the daughter of two Holocaust survivors, is quick to emphasize the importance of individual mental and health care. She went to jail for mail fraud and tax evasion in 2012, when she was 60 years old. She ended up in federal prison before regaining her freedom in 2015 after the Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction, reversing two charges and dismissing another one.
She experienced everything from solitary confinement to bullying over her lesbian sexuality while on the inside. Then when first on the outside, she lived through the stress of getting back on her feet with no money, housing, job prospects or connections.
“I deal with the trauma of PSTD every day,” she said, giving credit to her pet dog BooBoo, who she says “helps me to get into small spaces because of me having been in solitary confinement.”
WITNESS, which Litwok founded in 2016, runs the Suitcase Project, which works with faith-based and community organizations to provide newly released people with cell phones, clothing, toiletries, computers, and other necessities.
The MAP Project maintains a record of businesses owned and operated by the formerly incarcerated so they can network and support each other. Plus, WITNESS compiles and shares a digital library of testimonies of incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and directly impacted survivors of mass incarceration to educate the public and public officials so they institute better public policies.
Shopping Fair
The first QEDC-WITNESS public event is the Justice Reimagined Holiday Gift Fair on Sunday, Dec. 1, from noon to 4 pm.
To take place at B’nai Jeshurun Community House at 270 West 89th St. in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the event will feature several dozen businesses operated by formerly incarcerated individuals selling everything from unique crafts to delicious treats to clothes.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, WITNESS Board President Khaliah Ali, the daughter of Muhammad Ali, New York State Senator Jessica Ramos, and other social justice warriors will speak.
Images: WITNESS