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Explore how the social construct of race and racial oppression operates at multiple levels with a rotating focus on different social systems. Connect with Austin-area justice movement organizers and everyday people with relevant lived experience to lay out historical context, current affairs, and creative possibilities for a liberated future.
Hello. Hello. You are tuned in to Racism on the Levels. I am your host, Stacie Freasier. My pronouns are she and they.
Stacie Freasier:We are I'm sitting here with the first, guests that I have asked on to come on a second time. So I think that's a that's a testament to to how much I think you're putting out there in the world, Cynthia. And and some things have changed since you were on February 2024. Before we dive in, I'll say that the views expressed here are not necessarily those of the coop volunteers, board of directors, staff, or underwriters. And we are broadcasting, on stolen indigenous land due to violent settler colonialism, and I want to continue to express our gratitude, respect, and the need to, engage in reclamation efforts.
Stacie Freasier:You can just find out the land you're on by going to native-land.ca. If you are streaming, if you're joining us via our stream, which goes to all corners of this earth. So thank you all for listening online. And also this show is gonna be archived, and I will share around a a a recording for you to share with your friends afterwards. So Cynthia Simons, you are the Innovative Justice and Program Analysis Reentry Planning Manager for Travis County.
Stacie Freasier:How did I do on that?
Cynthia Simons:Yes, yes, you got it right. It's a mouthful and we've rebranded so people get it wrong. So you did it, you hit it right on the money.
Stacie Freasier:Thank you. Yes, and it all sounds really important. So I'm gonna let you explain what you're doing there. But you're also a consultant. And I think that that has really ramped up since we last sat here together.
Cynthia Simons:Yes, yes. I have a consulting business, transformative practices that has also given me more time to do things that are important to me and things that are kind of hyper focused in the policy and organizational structure that I really really like to hone in on because Austin has more nonprofits per capita than anywhere else. So, yeah, both both areas of work are very very passionate for me. Serving system impacted people and being able to really amplify the needs and structure and strategic planning of nonprofits.
Stacie Freasier:Yes. And I'll also add to that note you just made that this is not a philanthropic city compared to a lot of other cities that I have been in. So more nonprofits and fewer philanthropic dollars to spread amongst those nonprofits.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, absolutely, which you know then inadvertently or maybe intentionally right creates a lot of competition in the nonprofit world right and creates people fighting for the same pools of money or competing for the same pools of money, makes it very difficult to, like, collaborate. Right? And it it makes it difficult to expand and scale the services. Right? So for, you know, a number of nonprofits to really get it right and and and scale up, it makes it difficult because of the philanthropic landscape because they're, you know, they're bound to do what they're able to fund to do instead of folks having a lot of investment into their entities and organizations to be able to really build up.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. We could go on and on about that. That was my my background and then I just got really into the just having a critical lens on the nonprofit industrial complex and I can't help but know that some of that is by design because we anyway, we're not gonna go there right now because there's other important work that you're doing. And I also wanna make that we cover talking about clean slate today, where that's where I last saw you was at the Capitol. And you were actually, I think it was a Ledge 101 training.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, we were doing a Ledge training that was the basics of being able to lobby and advocate for legislation or stop, right, play defense against legislation. And then we had a hyper focus on our Clean Slate campaign, which are bills that are related to record clearing and expungement for people who have criminal records, up to, state jail felonies, but not including all of them. So HB 4,515 and HB two thousand five and seven are both bills that would, either expand it up to that state jail felony, for folks with marijuana offenses and the other bill, kind of finishes out the process, right? These people are already eligible for orders of non disclosure, but they go through a really lengthy process of having to get an attorney, having to pay lots of legal costs, going through the courts, you know, adding additional backlog for people to make appearances and hearings for something that they're already eligible for, right? It's not subjective.
Cynthia Simons:And so this would just make that process, fully implemented, right? Where people would not have to go get attorneys, where people would not have to fill up court dockets in order to be have this petition granted for something that they're already eligible for, which, you know, really helps our our folks that are system impacted because when you think about the earning potential, right, for people who have criminal records, right, it's significantly less, right, because we are in a state that legally disenfranchises people, when it comes to employment, when it comes to housing. And when we're talking about people who have criminal convictions, right, we're saying, you need to do better. You need to not commit any more crime. You need to be a productive member of the community.
Cynthia Simons:Right? The foundational thing, right, is safe shelter and being able to work, right? Being able to get yourself the things that you need to take care of yourself and your family. And so this is just a pathway forward where people could really have a better suited situation to try to move forward past their criminal backgrounds.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. And then when I was prepping for the show and doing some research, it looks like, is it, does it roll up to a larger organization that's working nationally in different states or what's the
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, absolutely it does. Clean Slate is actually a national organization. So I am part of the Clean Slate Texas Coalition, but it is a national organization and they are doing forms of record sealing, nondisclosure and expungement across The United States, and they've been really, really successful in some of the other states. And, you know, they're doing work in Texas and and Massachusetts and a number of other states, because I think the statistic is like one in four people have a criminal background. Texas incarcerates more people by sheer number than any other state.
Cynthia Simons:So when we're looking at The United States as all itself, right, incarcerates has a higher incarceration rate than anywhere else in the world. And so when we're looking at, like, what really impacts people and what really keeps them in the crux of those structural inequities, you know, incarceration is one, right? Family separation is another, right? And these two things just independently, right, could probably make up a vast majority of the challenges that people face, right, in underserved black and brown communities because those are the people who are disproportionately impacted by the criminal legal system as well as family separation.
Stacie Freasier:Thank you for bringing that. I was about to bring that up if you didn't. I was like, because this is racism on the level. So like, what there is a, an element of racial oppression to the way that things are structured.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, absolutely. And you know, just to like connect it back to something else you said earlier about the nonprofit industrial complex, right? That some of these systems are by design. And when we're looking at our carceral system, our child welfare system, the way that we separate families, right, like, can say that these things were done by design. Right?
Cynthia Simons:And, you know, everybody who's an actor in these systems, I am an employee of Travis County, right? And I'm not perpetuating that and I didn't intend for it to happen in that way, but we do have a responsibility to acknowledge that these harms are there and that systemically, right, and by design that they're there. And we have to be really creative and innovative about how we disrupt these things and how we really bolster up supportive supports, programs, trauma informed responses, culturally sensitive and appropriate things, right, for a community that has been intergenerationally harmed by systems. Yes.
Stacie Freasier:So you have been with before Travis County in your role there, you were the former director of women's justice, right, for Texas Center for Justice and Equity.
Cynthia Simons:Yes, yes, I was.
Stacie Freasier:And so how has the nature of your work in those two roles, how has it changed, if any?
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, it's completely different. So at TCJE, I was the director and had a hyper focus on, policy work, and so, did a lot of, like, policy writing, policy initiatives, on a local and state level, right? Working with your electeds and your legislators on your local and state level, right? To create initiatives or policies that would impact underserved people particularly women, children, system impacted people. I mean, that's really how I grew my relationship with the folks at Travis County is, you know, really like, you know, showing up at commissioner's court, showing up at these other events that they have, and meeting with the electeds and other people within the county and, you know, having a thoughtful conversation, right?
Cynthia Simons:Not me sitting on one side and saying, you're all bad, you're all bad. But saying like, yes, I have issue with this. This is what it looks like to potentially resolve that. You know, happy to hear your side of it and let's keep talking, right? Till we get towards a solution, right?
Cynthia Simons:Because we all here want to see the community thrive. So, yeah, it it significantly changed in that way that I I I work under the court now that I was doing policy work within in different policy initiatives on a local level, but I've been very, very supported in my role. And I'm now managing a direct service program. And so that kind of gives me a little bit of balance because policy work is a long game. I did have some successes, HB 02/1926 that passed unanimously out of the house, and the senate, in my very first session, but that is very unique and that was, you know, way beyond me, that that actually happened.
Cynthia Simons:So policy in general is a very long game. And so being able to have the direct service component of it where, one, I get to keep being informed by the people who need the things the most so that I'm not sitting back prescribing to people what they need, like continually being informed by that and having some of that instant rewarding, right, where we instantly are getting people housed, where we are being able to work with people to get them into livable wage jobs, where we are paying for people's vocation, seeing them through their vocational trade, right, where we are taking people off of the streets and putting them into safe and stable housing, getting them clothing, hygiene, the things that they need to take care of themselves and then the support from a planner to be able to continue to navigate reentry for a minimum of six months. I get to see the fruition of that, right? We have a event once a year, a client appreciation event where people get to come and we have food and we cater and we have a program so that people can know how much we appreciate them and all the hard work that they put in.
Cynthia Simons:And that room fills up, you know, because they you've it's not often that people get low barrier access to supportive services just to get them on an upward trajectory. Yeah. And I get the unique opportunity to be a servant leader in that way and manage that program.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. So David Johnson was my guest last month on the show. I know we gave you some shout outs on that show. So my question is related to David's work and it's like, are y'all's organizations collaborating?
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, really good question. Shout out back to you, David, if you're listening. So yeah, David is a reentry organ. He's a nonprofit. And so we have collaborated together to get people housing.
Stacie Freasier:Building Promise Foundation. Building Promise USA. Building Promise USA,
Cynthia Simons:yes, that's They are a reentry org as well. We do very similar things in that I am seated in the county, and he is, seated in the nonprofit world. And so, we've collaborated together to be able to get people housing, emergency housing, when mine or his, organization maybe didn't have the funds to cover it for three or four months' entirety, we've collaborated together to be able to really give people a step up. Right? Because you can pay for someone to stay for thirty days, but that's just enough time to, like, get sober.
Cynthia Simons:That's just enough time to like deal with all the trauma of being emotionally. And merrily, mean, like, yeah.
Stacie Freasier:Days goes like that.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah. You're just like, you just gave them time to breathe, one or two breaths, like that's it. And so we really try to keep people housed for a few months, right? To give them the space that they need to take care of themselves, their mental health, their emotional health, their physical health. Workforce development.
Cynthia Simons:Then let's talk about higher education. Then let's talk about family reunification, right? Whatever it is that this person's barrier has. So we've collaborated in that way. We collaborated community events together.
Cynthia Simons:We're hosting a job fair this month on the twenty third at the workforce center. That's by Remberg from around 10AM to one or 2PM. It's a second chance job fair. So Building Promise USA will be there. So we'll have employers that are second chance employers as well as resources.
Cynthia Simons:So he'll be there as a resource. We often, co manage some of the same clients. We may have services that we provide that they don't or vice versa. Right? And so we'll we'll co manage those caseloads together and, you know, anything that, the folks at Building Promise USA need, we're there to stand in that gap.
Cynthia Simons:And I think that that relationship is vice versa because we're serving the same population. So we're not competitors,
Stacie Freasier:we are That actually sounds like a beautiful model. If you are just tuning in, are listening to Racism on the Levels. I am your host, Stacey Fraser. We are on ninety one point seven FM here in Austin, Texas. And if anywhere you want to tune in on any of our programming, it's it's KOOP.org.
Stacie Freasier:Cynthia Simons is my guest today. And this is a reunion for us and because she was here February 2024. And so we're just catching up on the air together of like, what's, what's what's transpired in those past fifteen months and she has had some you've had some shifts. I want to go back to when I was listening to you earlier describe particularly how your work around policy and meeting with the electeds. And when you said the electeds, like that's already like some jargon.
Stacie Freasier:Yes, I know you meant elected officials, but to me, I am no policy wonk and I started to engage. I have over the many years actually, I'm not gonna like shortchange myself, but it is a confusing labyrinth to me. And I am mildly educated on this. So if someone is not even knowing where to start in the process, right? This process may be disempowering and confusing.
Stacie Freasier:So where would you point someone to go to, to even think it's possible to get involved in policy change locally here in Austin?
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, absolutely, Stacy. And again, one of those things that are by design, this process was mystified, the language, the jargon, the thou shalt's maze, like, those things are it's intentional, right, so that people do feel intimidated so people do not get involved. And I just wanna encourage people that, right, the folks that are in elected positions, the folks that are running our country and determining, like, what happens, what are the laws that govern our state and and and our nation, right, we put them there. Right? The voters, you have that power.
Cynthia Simons:Without the voters, they are not there. So I just wanna, like, drop that for people to, like, really be encouraged to get into the process. And there's a number of public policy organizations, right, that have small community coalitions. Right? Off the top of my head, I'm thinking about, Tomorrow's Promise Foundation.
Cynthia Simons:Right? We have a clean slate coalition. Right? Clean slate action committee where we train people on policy, where we host monthly meetings to talk about what's happening in the ledge, specifically around the bills, but it's open for any dialogue around there. Grassroots organization has a Taj, t a j, membership where they really focus on criminal justice reform and could really, like, provide some education around policy initiatives, and it's a way for the community to get involved.
Cynthia Simons:Right?
Stacie Freasier:Is that Grassroots leadership? It is. Okay.
Cynthia Simons:It is. And, you know, if if you're like, I don't know. Like, I don't know. I need to fill it out. Do I want to do policy or not?
Cynthia Simons:Go to a hearing. Go to the look it up and see when the commissioner's court hearings are. See when city council is happening at city hall. Go to your school board meetings. Go to these local things and just go in there and sit and listen.
Cynthia Simons:And that in itself will take that intimidation away because you'll get to sit in there and hear people talking and you'll realize that you're very qualified to be sitting in these rooms and that your opinion does matter and your voice does matter. And if you're not there representing yourself and your community and the people that look like you and are are similarly situated, that oftentimes we're left out of those conversations. And and I wanna say this, people think that and this isn't true for everybody, but I'm gonna speak for Travis County right now. Our electeds want to hear from the community. Our current court, they want to hear from the community, and they want to to know what people's concerns are.
Cynthia Simons:They want to know what people think solutions are. Right? And I think that's true, right, in in in city hall. I think in part, it can be true at the legislator at times. I think we're in a really, really tough session this particular time.
Cynthia Simons:But even when people don't wanna hear from you, right, that's when it's really, really important for you to hear from them. Right? And you are their constituents, and so what you say does matter. It does hold some weight. So you're you're very, very valuable in that way.
Cynthia Simons:And I would say just go sit in there and then meet with people that work under the county, under the city, right? Meet with your directors, your county executives of different branches, right? Different departments.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah, like on that note. So I left for twenty years. I came back in 2021 and like the structure of the county is a mystery.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah. Yeah. It can be a little bit of challenging, right? And probably in ten years, it's gonna look a little bit different, right? So things are gonna continue to evolve and things are gonna continue to change in order to meet the need.
Cynthia Simons:And so I think like determining like what is your issue area, right? Is it mental health? Is it childcare? Is it criminal justice reform? Right?
Cynthia Simons:And go to those hearings, right? And just sit in and listen, right? And look up online. Every all of us are public servants, right, so you can find who the county executive is. You can reach out to the elected offices, the commissioners, the county judge, and say, hey, this is the issue that I'm trying to learn more about.
Cynthia Simons:Can you point me in the right direction? They're gonna give you the information that you need, right? And if you have something that you wanna share, if you have an experience, a loved one's experience, a friend, a family member, a community member, they wanna know about these things. We have a court that's really passionate, right? About climate right now, about mental health, about childcare, about what is happening to our underserved populations, our unhoused population, our justice involved populations.
Cynthia Simons:You know? And and we saw, like, with the election, right, how the tide can change. And I'm not, you know, necessarily advocating for one way or the other, but I'm saying that the tide changes. And so when you have people that are aligned with your values, your beliefs, and things that you would like to see in your community, that's the time to get on it. And it's really not the time to let up when people don't because your voice is still heard and your voice is still valid.
Cynthia Simons:There are lots of times, more than I can count, where I don't necessarily agree with everything someone says, and an elected may not agree with everything that I say. Right? But we continue to have the conversation to seek to resolve. Right? We continue to keep trying to have a resolution seeking conversation until we can reach a medium point.
Cynthia Simons:And my concerns are addressed. Their concerns are addressed. Right? The community's concerns are addressed. This other person, right, we don't always get it right, and no one's gonna walk away a % happy.
Cynthia Simons:The %, it went their way, but it's to, like, be able to say, these things were heard. These things were seen, they were valued, and this is the solution that we collectively came up with to try to address these things. We won't be able to address every single issue. We won't be able to get it right. But we can leave it better than what we got it.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah.
Stacie Freasier:Perhaps random, you're a subject matter expert in my mind and you are. What is the role of advocacy days particularly in this moment as people are congregating more as there is this, this is a little twinge of cynicism in my voice about like, the George Floyd uprising and then all of, there was this big wave of people and like the collective consciousness kind of went up a little bit. And I feel like that's happening right now. A smaller wave of people are being activated. What is the role in your opinion, Cynthia, of people gathering and how could that be as creatively effective as possible?
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, really good question. So I think that that role is to stand in alignment with their power. I think that that role is to really, like, walk into the divine destiny, right, that every human being innately has, right, to influence policy, to influence change, right, that systems, media, and fear mongering try to tell you you don't have. I think that's people stepping into that, stepping back into that boldness and saying, when I was silent and when I was complicit and when I thought, well, they can handle it. They'll get it right.
Cynthia Simons:They don't need me. You know, what we have now is what we have gotten from that. Right? So I think people should really, really like take advantage of that, right? Take advantage of of their voices and and take advantage of the collective power and continue to educate your friends, your family members, right?
Cynthia Simons:People that you're going to do golf with or sit at the dinner table or go to a barbe que with. Right? Let's talk about some of these important issues and let's get aligned on some of these things and get some same messaging so that we can see some of those changes. I think people listen, especially elected officials, more than what people think. And I think it's important to foster those relationships outside of just the two minute testimony or three minute testimony that you're getting, you know, at your local government hearings.
Cynthia Simons:Right? Like, the only time that you talk to your elected should not be in commissioner's court or at city hall.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. Like, so what are a couple of tangible ways or a tangible way that you could have that relationship or build that relationship with someone?
Cynthia Simons:You could just reach out to them and say, this is an issue you're working on. This is what's important to me. I would like to meet particularly about this. Now elected times are you know, their schedules are hectic. So if there's a few of you all working on it, bring everybody to the meeting.
Cynthia Simons:Right? And ask your questions, get what you need out, get the resolution that you're seeking, right? Ask them questions, right? Get the answers that you're seeking, right? And have that two way conversation, have that dialogue, right?
Cynthia Simons:Get familiar with their staffers. Email them regularly. Right? And if you can't always meet with the elected, meet with their staffers. Meet with their staffers and talk about the issues because that person is going back and telling, the elected what it is that the community is saying, and they want to hear from that.
Cynthia Simons:And we the community has the solutions. So the community has to take those solutions to those elected officials so that they can know what the community is is that is voicing. If we're not doing that, then they don't know. Host town halls, host lunch and learns, and invite them. Right?
Cynthia Simons:Invite them, invite their staff, invite people from other organizations or different neighborhoods that you normally wouldn't. Right? Lead by example in working in different zip codes or with different people that you normally wouldn't be around and create that environment, create that holistic approach. And then let's take those solutions, right? Take those solutions to the people who can wield the power to make those changes.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. And where does the media fit in, in your mind, to that process? Yeah.
Cynthia Simons:So I think that the media right now is a interesting place. Right? Because, I'm, you know, gonna talk about my age here a little bit. So when I was growing up, social media wasn't as prevalent as it is now, and there was a little bit more, I guess, integrity around the information that was disseminated in the news and in the newspapers and in magazines, like, checking.
Stacie Freasier:AI hadn't hit like it is now.
Cynthia Simons:So And so the media can be a really, really good tool to to bolster information, to do public aid education, to really like widespread information and it can also be dangerous in that way because you can have wrong information. You can have misinformation, misleading information, or just outright lies, right, that can also spread at lightning speed. And with our younger generations where they're not watching the news, where they're not picking up newspapers. I don't even know if, like, real newspapers exist anywhere. Right?
Cynthia Simons:Like, where they're getting all of their media off of Instagram and TikTok, and it needs to be in seven seconds and concise. Right? It needs to be compelling enough that, like, they like it or whatever so it's on their algorithm.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. It's, like, hard to unpack a policy in seven seconds.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah. So it it's a right now, it's this is the time for people to get really creative about how can you use media and, like, how do you verify to people or solidify that this is true, that this is valid? What makes this more valid and accurate than the next thing that they scroll up on?
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. Alright. We're we're gonna pause for station traffic. We'll be right back.
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Stacie Freasier:Hey, y'all. You are listening to Racism on the Levels. I am your host, Stacy Frazier, and I am sitting with someone that I admire really deeply Cynthia Simons. And I would say you're a shining star in for many reasons, but you're always out there and you just know a lot about what you're doing through informed by your living lived experience and your professional diligence, I would say. And so thank you for joining us.
Stacie Freasier:We are, we are going to go into now. We've been going broad in terms of plugging into the legislative machinery and how folks pragmatically can cultivate, be effective. I keep hearing creativity coming up as like, we need to get creative, be creative, find the space to be creative, to be able to be effective in this moment of, our media landscape for what it is in this moment. And also that the way it sounds like one of the takeaways from the first part of the show was, to demystify the process in a way of show up at a meeting and you mentioned school board or commissioners court or city council meeting and just show up as a observer and then that could be one way to enter in and not have as much, I don't know just not knowing where to start. I think a lot of people just don't know how and if.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, absolutely. And like even there's a a step before showing up. Right? These things are streamed online. Go onto the websites and watch the streamings.
Cynthia Simons:Listen to the streamings. Get yourself comfortable. Get yourself acclimated. Right? Figure out what issue it is that makes you feel something when they talk about it.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah. Right? That makes you go, uh-uh.
Stacie Freasier:The fire in your belly.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah. Like, figure out where you're getting that physiological response at. Let's make sure sinus hormone response, but, you know, identify that and then, yes, let's you know, that's how you know, like, okay, that's where I wanna be engaged in. That's where I wanna be pulled towards. Right?
Cynthia Simons:And like a part of demystifying it, part of it is demystifying it. And then a part of it is like taking back the understanding that it was for the people. It is the process, the Democrat, democracy process, right, of electing people in to represent constituents, to represent people that are in their districts where they live is because it is for the people that is a person representing the people that are similarly situated to them because, you know, theoretically, they live in their districts so that they you know, they're their constituents. Yeah. So
Stacie Freasier:And and this well, I will also say and the people who designed this model were also looking for their people. So they missed a lot of people in the design of our systems.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, again, we go back to these intentional designs. Right? And the designs, you know, the gerrymandering that has taken place.
Cynthia Simons:Right? The intentional way of blocking people out and making it more difficult, but they wouldn't block you out and they wouldn't make it more if you didn't matter. There you go. Voice didn't matter, if your opinion didn't matter, if your collective effort couldn't move the needle, why? They wouldn't.
Cynthia Simons:It does matter. It matters so much that they have to go through these strategic plans in order to figure out how to block you out. But the fact of the matter is is like you're a person living in the district. Right? Like, you have the ability to be represented and you have, the ability to amplify your voice.
Cynthia Simons:So a lot of it is like taking back that power, right, that, like, getting rid of that wrong indoctrination that this is too difficult for me or I don't belong there or my voice doesn't matter or it won't do anything because it absolutely will. And that's why it's been so intentional to block certain people out.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. Let's go deep into your area of expertise. You have a few, but on the subject matter of reentry. So I'm just going to say that probably some of our listeners don't even know what we mean by reentry. What is reentry?
Cynthia Simons:Absolutely. So reentry is the process in which a person who is formerly incarcerated, so you'll hear me referring to them as system impacted is reentering into the world, right? Is like after their incarceration or after the disposition of their case, right? That they're trying to re acclimate to the world after being held in an institution, right, whether that's jail or whether that's prison, whether you were there for twelve days or you were there for twelve years or twenty years, right. It's the process of finding your footing in society and in a society, in a state where you're legally disenfranchised from housing and from employment.
Cynthia Simons:So now you need to, with this felony record, with this conviction, you need to be able to take care of yourself and you need to get housing, You need to be able to reunify with your family. You need to be able to like rebuild this life. But some of the very basic foundational things that any person would need, you have a lot of barriers to getting there. So, you know, people say like, well, what's, why is your program unique to the workforce solutions? Right?
Cynthia Simons:Like they could just go to the workforce and get a job. And it's like, well, actually they can go to the workforce. Yes. And the workforce might get them lots of jobs that they're qualified for referrals, but how many of those referrals are going to not take them because of the criminal background? So then you have people that go to forty, fifty interviews and not one person will hire them because of their criminal background.
Cynthia Simons:So our program is very unique in that we only do referrals. We only do job search assistance and systems navigation where we already know that there is, second chance employment available. Right? And so we build the relationships with the employers. We're constantly seeking out employers, right?
Cynthia Simons:So I've got seven people on staff. So we spend about twenty four hours a week just on outreach for new employers. Just determining can we build up our base, our pool because it is so difficult, right? And then people get employment in the lowest lowest wage job that are the most strenuous physically on your body, right, which then like dovetails into your mental health and emotional health, right, but just on the surface, right, we'll leave it there. And so, we we really work with people to get into a livable wage job to really explore vocations.
Cynthia Simons:We have a vocation program where we'll pay for their CDL. We're looking to expand that to other vocations really quickly here in the next
Stacie Freasier:couple of Like health care, for example, would that be a
Cynthia Simons:Well, health care is a really tricky field because health care is one of those fields that kind of just blanketly bar people with criminal backgrounds. So like nurses, we see it all the time. You know, they've been a nurse for twenty years, working around substances, right? High stress environment, Then they end up in substance abuse disorder. Then they have this charge and like they go to prison or they get, you know, probation for this offense and then they try to go back to, right?
Cynthia Simons:They go get their selves help, whatever that looks like for them. They're on their recovery journey and they're like, yes, let me go back to my field. And they're like, no, we don't care about the twenty years you put into there. We don't care about the high stress environment. We're just not interested anymore.
Cynthia Simons:And it becomes really difficult for people. Right? So it's, yeah, healthcare is one of those hard fields.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah. So then what, thank you. I'm glad we got there. So when someone is incarcerated, is that the point that you're able to reach in and start when you know that they're gonna be released? Do you start there process wise or like how do people even know where to find you?
Cynthia Simons:Right. Well, we're way more community facing now. I've been at the county for a little over a year now and one of my priorities was to get us in the community because people did not know about us. It was a really just flying under the radar. You know, it was really flying under the radar.
Cynthia Simons:So we're we have a lot of community partners now. We work with nonprofit organizations such as Building Promise USA. Right? We're really inundated in the community. We're showing up at events.
Cynthia Simons:We're inviting people to our events. So there's several different, pathways in, right, several different doors that you can get to Innovative Justice Reentry Resources, right? So you can come in through the community. We have an intake line where you can just call the number. The number is on the Travis County website and you can just call and you know, we'll do an intake with you.
Cynthia Simons:We'll, if you're appropriate, right, we're eligible for the program. We'll assign you to a planner. A lot of people come to us through community referrals, right? Someone who's been through the program or gotten their CDL with us or is living in the emergency transitional houses that we fund, they'll come, you know, it's by word-of-mouth. So we can even go in through the community, you can come in through other community based organizations, you can find us online.
Cynthia Simons:You might see us in the community at different events and then we do also go into the Travis County Jail into the women's and the men's side and then we also go into the Travis State Jail which is a state jail prison here in Travis County, and we do, workshops in there. We do programs, that are employment readiness, and we're there from a few days up to a week at a time, where we're really prepping people for their reentry journey, right? What is your reentry capital? Where is your support system? What skills do you have?
Cynthia Simons:Do you have a resume? This is what you need for a resume. Right? Like, what are the tips and tricks on interviewing? How do you talk about your criminal background?
Cynthia Simons:Right? In a way that can hopefully be conducive to you getting employment. How do you talk about it in a way where you can try to rebuild some of those broken relationships that have happened along the way.
Stacie Freasier:When you said, where's your reentry capital? Does that mean like, do you have money?
Cynthia Simons:No, reentry capital is a little bit different. So reentry capital is like, who's your support network, right? What is the organization that's gonna help you? Where are you gonna live? Like, do you have a sponsor?
Cynthia Simons:Do you need a sponsor? Right? How are you gonna get your food? Right? How are you gonna take care of your mental health?
Cynthia Simons:Right? Like what are the reentry capital are the different things that a person needs as a safety net and needs those things to work together in order for success for their reentry. Right?
Stacie Freasier:Yeah.
Cynthia Simons:So the data will show us that family connection and community ties is the number one way to prevent recidivism. So lots of people, part of their reentry capital is their family, our friends, right? And unfortunately, some of those relationships have been damaged.
Stacie Freasier:Well, exactly. I was gonna say, well, what if they don't have family?
Cynthia Simons:And if they don't have family, that's why it's really, really important to identify what that reentry capital is. Right? Because if you know that you need this thing, but you're unable to have it, what are the other things that you can identify that you do need, and what are you gonna do about this not being able to get this thing, about this rejection, about this abandonment, about this whatever feeling, right, may come up for you? And that's also a part of the reentry journey, right? Learning how to navigate rejection, learning how to navigate abandonment, learning how to navigate those trauma responses that maybe you didn't have the tools for before, to be able to navigate successfully.
Cynthia Simons:Right? Yeah. But when you plan, you know these things ahead of time so you're mentally prepared versus you get a discharge date, you're walking outside, and you're like, I thought this person was gonna pick up. They're not. I thought I could go to this reentry home and just give a get a call or get a ride over to somewhere.
Cynthia Simons:I thought that I would be able to get this job a lot easier. I thought everybody got hired here. Like, you know, well, I didn't think about food because where I've been, they've been feeding me for the every day. Right? And so that's part of the planning process, right?
Cynthia Simons:Is to identify those barriers and to identify coping mechanisms and strategies, right? To deal with the harm and the hurt that you're gonna like have to go through, right? Through your re injury journey, right? Everybody doesn't have family.
Stacie Freasier:Well, to process the trauma of what just happened to you being your body being locked up, right? Like that I imagine has a whole set of unexpected and previously perhaps unexperienced consequences to heal from.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, absolutely. Right. And to even go deeper there, right. Where people's ancestors have been in bondage, right. Generationally.
Stacie Freasier:Tie it to race. Then Tie it to race. That's what I'm showing.
Cynthia Simons:And then you go into this carceral setting and you start having these responses and these thoughts, you know, in your body and you're trying to figure out what is going on and it's in your DNA because your family's been locked up since they inhabited this land right since they were brought to this land.
Stacie Freasier:Yeah and that has been scientifically studied that trauma embodied carries into your DNA when you're born.
Cynthia Simons:Yes absolutely and so those are things that you have to contend with. I'm really really big on trauma informed practices and healing from your trauma and education around it. You would be absolutely surprised, or maybe not, how many people who are system impacted have no idea what trauma is, have no idea how to identify trauma, have no idea what it takes to like heal from trauma. And like, this literally changes the chemical balance in your brain. And you can make the same decision and know like, oh, this is the wrong decision.
Cynthia Simons:I shouldn't do this. I shouldn't do this, but keep doing it and not know why you don't do it. Right? Why you keep doing it? And that is unaddressed trauma, right?
Cynthia Simons:You can have physiological responses to things, to sights, to smells, to sounds, and think that you should be in fear or that you need to defend yourself or that you need to run away. And, actually, it's a trauma response. Right? And you need to be able to identify that and then identify what is the appropriate reaction because my brain, like, my trauma can't help me navigate this. So I have to, like, think.
Cynthia Simons:I gotta separate those things and say, what is the logical, safe thing for me to do for me and for everyone around me in this moment?
Stacie Freasier:Well, and to adopt practices and then practice them because logic goes out the window when you're in a strong, well, I'm speaking from my own experience. When you're in a strong moment of cloudiness or anger or rage from something that triggered to your point since early in you into that space. That's why I like learning the practices and I have practices in my life and I have them in place and they're rock solid. And I've cultivated them over thirty years to make sure that my boat stays steady in those moments.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah.
Stacie Freasier:And I hope every single human among us gets to learn and know about those tools.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I didn't always have the techniques that I have now. I didn't always have the tools that I have now. And that's why I can speak to the severity, the importance of needing those things in your life and particularly those people, right, from underserved, marginalized communities, those people who have been system impacted, right? Because we, most people are not equipped with that And it is a quality of life issue to not have those tools, to not have those things that really keep you grounded and and recalibrate you and help you to understand why you feel a different way and give you language to express it.
Stacie Freasier:It's also to get poetic a quantity of life issue.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And that's why the planning process, right, of reentry, right, before a person gets out. And then, you know, because the felony conviction is a lifetime collateral consequence, we help people at any stage, right? You could be out two days, you could currently be incarcerated, you could have been out twenty years because the fact of the matter is, is if you lose your job or you fall on hard times, right?
Cynthia Simons:You lose your good job and now you're faced with this felony again, trying to navigate the world. It's difficult. It can be an extreme challenge and it can turn your life upside down.
Stacie Freasier:Reason 1,000,000 to make friendships, be out with people, just have people in your life because people will be able to connect you into these resources if and when this happens to you. And I think that it's happening more and more. And when you said earlier at the top of the show about the stat about Texas incarcerating more people, I was thinking, what about Alabama? Because I was they they're building a giant federal prison there, right now. Like, literally right now, I'm building it.
Cynthia Simons:Wow. Well, we're still in the running for incarcerating more people by sheer number. But, you know, systems are doing something a little different in the way that, like, county jails are actually taking, people to do their time in other states and other institutions. And so it might be something like that. And then the federal prisons and the state prisons run a little differently.
Cynthia Simons:As in the federal prison, if you're in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, you can be shipped anywhere in The United States. Traditionally, if you are in a state run prison, you're in that state run prison. You're not going all over the place. So the federal prison that's being built in Alabama will house people all over The United States. So it has no bearing on where they were sentenced actually from.
Cynthia Simons:And so my stat was on the actual arrest conviction and sentencing of people in the state of Texas. Okay.
Stacie Freasier:Thank you.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah. Yeah.
Stacie Freasier:I just want you to have a twenty four hour show. I don't want you to have a twenty four hour show for your own well-being, but you know so much. Have about 10, little under ten minutes left. So I wanna talk about your consulting work that you're doing and transformative practices. We've talked a lot about the county but I want to spend a few minutes talking about what you're cooking up and what you're doing.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah, absolutely. So policy is one of our arms of the consulting company, Really informing the policy, really being a thought partner with folks who want to do policy on a local or state level or a national level, right? Helping to organize people who need to be at the table, right? Who stakeholders and people who need to be at the table when you're thinking about developing the policy and then the implementation phase, right? Like after we get the policy through, like what does it look like to actually implement this practically?
Cynthia Simons:We do a lot around criminal justice reform, child welfare, and things that affect, women and the criminal justice system. So I was just recently in, Washington, doing some lobbying on, bills and educating or having dialogue, right, with some congressional members there about what policies are needed and the changes, that could come down to actual practical things for parents, right, for moms, right? Like, what is it that impacts moms? What is it that is impacting mothers of color the most right now, right? Typically, when you're talking about what's impacting a mom, you're talking about her Child care.
Cynthia Simons:Yeah. So we really dived in on like maternal health care. We talked about childcare. We talked about vouchers. You know, we really talked about family separation, right?
Cynthia Simons:And the alarming rate at which black families followed by brown families are separated through systems. So we have that policy consulting arm. And then we really do the organizational structure, organizational structure with nonprofits, right, and small businesses, right? Like how do you scale this thing? Or like what's needed in place to get us a little bit more stable at where we're at, right?
Cynthia Simons:Like we have all these pockets of things going, but we don't have like a great system. These things aren't connected or we were in this place that worked really well for us three years ago we kind of been floundering there.
Stacie Freasier:I was gonna say like one of the, in a past life I was a strategy consultant to nonprofits. I'm like, all right, well we have a problem with retaining people. It's like, okay, so maybe we got a people problem with this organization or maybe, you know, I'm a budget process down or maybe you don't have a strategic plan or maybe your board is asleep at the wheel or absent. Yeah. Gotta build a board.
Stacie Freasier:Anyway, nonprofit.
Cynthia Simons:Whoo. Yep.
Stacie Freasier:All those And then what is you know, god, we're really running close. But why did you name it transformative practices?
Cynthia Simons:Because I wanted to transform the systems, right? So people talk a lot about burning them down and dismantling them. And I don't disagree with any of those metaphors at all. But I want to transform systems. I want to transform cultures.
Cynthia Simons:Right? I want to transform the way that we interact with one another and the way that we see things. Right? I want to to take this thing and transform it into something entirely different. Right?
Cynthia Simons:That may have some reminisce of what was there before, but it will be a transformational thing. And and it has to be a practice. Right? It it can't be something that you do once. It can't be bringing me in and I do a strategic plan and you know, I follow-up in six months about timeline or implementation and that's it, right?
Cynthia Simons:It's a practice like the things and the tools that we we learn together, the things and the tools that we collectively co design and determine that this is what implementation needs to be for the organization, companies, or entities, We develop the practices, right? How do we keep this going? How do we keep reinforcing them? So that's where the name derived from.
Stacie Freasier:Cool, it's a powerful name. Thank you. How do folks find the, well, I would say that what we kind of covered today was clean slate. We've talked about your role with Travis County. We talked about, transformative practices.
Stacie Freasier:So where can folks find more information about each of those three?
Cynthia Simons:Yeah. So, one, I'm on Facebook and I'm on LinkedIn, Cynthia Simons, one m in Simons. So you're welcome to message me and you can peruse on any of my pages and you can see information from any of those things. And then there is a clean slate clean slate national website, and there is also a Travis County website, right, where you can type in reentry, and it'll take you to the reentry resources page. I with a we also have a reentry resources page on Facebook, and clean slate, you know, has we have stuff on our page.
Cynthia Simons:We have stuff on Tomorrow's Promise Foundation page, and then they have their own national page. And if that's too difficult, just really DM me. Hey, I wanna know more about this. I'm gonna get you the information.
Stacie Freasier:And if that's too difficult, you can reach out to me. And my email address here at the station is staciekoop dot org. So stacyco op. And I can connect you with Cynthia or any of the resources that we have covered today. And I'm just really grateful for this.
Stacie Freasier:And you are welcome back anytime I said, oh gosh, who knows what let's dive into how things are going fifteen months from now this will be our clip. You're welcome anytime though. Thank you And y'all I really appreciate you tuning in today to Racism on the Levels. We are renewing for another program. I am renewing for another programming year here.
Stacie Freasier:I'm gonna go to every other month. So my next show is gonna be in July. Remembering all things and always love is the highest level. And up next is Democracy Now. Thank y'all.
Stacie Freasier:Take care. Love and light.
Cynthia Simons:Bye.
KOOP:Visualize a philanthropist, I take in nothing. Never giving up on the love tip. And let your light shine like the sunshine. A celebration, no separation. You got a love song?
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KOOP:We in the love zone. Thank you, love. Thank you, love. Thank you, love. Thank you, love.
KOOP:Know I breathe for you. Thank you, love. You know I sing for you. Thank you, love. You know I stand for you.
KOOP:Thank you, love. You know I dance for you.
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Cynthia Simons:The following is a nationally syndicated news program broadcast by licensing agreement with Co op Radio. The views expressed are not necessarily the views of Co op Radio or its Board of Directors, volunteers, staff, or underwriters.