By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Shanna Wallen said she recently saw the quote, “The person you are most equipped to help is the person you used to be.”

Wallen, who’s going on 21 years of sobriety from methamphetamine, started work on July 8 as the Kosciusko Community Recovery Program resource navigator. Through the new program and position, she’s helping all Kosciusko County Jail inmates who agree to it with housing, education and information on other local resources to aid them in life after incarceration.

Wallen was born and raised in Warsaw and got her GED from Warsaw High School. She also has an associate degree in business from Indiana Business College.

She’s married to Jeremy Wallen. They have eight children and a number of grandchildren.

Shanna enjoys working out, spending time with her horses and riding her motorcycle in her spare time.

Prior to becoming resource navigator, Shanna worked for Amazon and the Rose Garden Recovery Community, a women’s residential addiction treatment program in Syracuse.

She’s also taught classes for the Kosciusko County Jail Chemical Addiction Program, including a life skills class while former JCAP Coordinator Courtney Jenkins was leading the program and Celebrate Recovery with current JCAP Coordinator Casey Trombley.

Shanna noted during her time spent working with JCAP she “saw the need for more support (for inmates) than just do your time and walk out the door.”

“I wanted to see some of the opportunities JCAP had offered to the rest of the jail, so I knew that it needed to happen. I just did not expect that I would be the one doing it,” she said.

Shanna said her tasks vary from day to day.

“I love that I do something a little bit different every day,” she said. “I go back and meet with the inmates who are getting close to their release date. I’m currently seeing the ones that are 90 days out, asking what their housing plan is, their employment plan, if they want a peer coach, so we get them connected while they’re still in here, getting them a mentor after release.”

She added future plans include hopefully “adding (high school equivalency) classes” for those in the general jail population.

Shanna said the two biggest needs she’s seen amongst inmates so far are housing after incarceration and “getting their documents again.”

“A lot of people lose their license or certificate or Social Security card when they’re arrested, and that’s usually the biggest need is how to obtain those again because it’s hard to reestablish getting them without having them,” Shanna explained. “It’s a whole process. They’ve got to start with their birth certificate, and then if they’re not local, it can be tricky to get a copy.”

“(At) the (Bureau of Motor Vehicles), they can go there and generally get a (document) copy, but it costs $9 for a license,” she added. “We have people in here that are indigent that don’t have money or anybody … If there’s anyone that wants to donate for that, we do have a donation fund set up.”

Shanna said she’s working “on giving (inmates) an envelope with resources that they can connect with when they get out.”

“I try to get everybody resources for their area that’s going to be applicable to them,” she noted.

Shanna said leaders were “working on aftercare” for inmates post-incarceration.

“We’re working with a couple of community organizations to kind of hand that over to them, so it really truly is a community program,” she noted. “It’s not just me or just them.”

Shanna noted her job involves a lot of “traffic-directing.”

“I’m really assessing their individual needs because not every inmate is going to have the same needs when they walk out the door,” she said. “Some have housing, and some have transportation. Others have nothing, so it’s just a matter of it’s not a one-size-fits-all situation.”

“We’ve got to really get them to be aware and assess what they need and then how to move forward with that, filling those needs,” said Shanna. “We have people that they say they’re just going to go out to the same life, but I do know I still have the hope that (I can help them).”

She said many volunteers were connected to the KCRP thus far, including incoming peer coaches from Fellowship Missions and Living In Transition Effectively or LITE.

“We’re looking at some people that it may be appropriate for them to have Bowen Center skills coaches,” she said. “It just depends on if they have mental health issues; we want to make sure those are addressed.”

Some of the highlights so far for Shanna of working as resource navigator have been securing a ride for an inmate after they got out of jail and working on housing for another inmate who has barriers to finding shelter.

Shanna said she feels inmates have been receptive to her so far.

“The biggest thing is people have expressed appreciation just that I’m willing to listen to their story,” she said. “I don’t just see their charges and what they’ve done: I see their potential and what they can do after they leave here.”

“Within one year or less, I would like to be meeting people when they come in through booking, so services would actually start from the moment they come in and I can assess them then and figure out their needs because the (HSE) program will take four months if they do it all while it’s here,” said Shanna of future goals for the program. “They can start it here and finish it outside of here, but being here and not having the distractions of the outside world will definitely increase their chances of being successful with that.”

Shanna said the community can help the program through “word of mouth.”

“If they know someone that has a record of coming to jail quite a bit, and there’s almost always some underlying something whether it’s mental health or addiction, that if we can help them work on being self-aware and healing that, that will help break their cycle of continuing to come back again,” she said.

People may donate for the KCRP by sending funds to the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office, noting they are for the KCRP.

Shanna said she’s “excited” to see how the program grows over time.

“Even if we only help a few people, that’s that many more people that aren’t coming back to jail,” she said. “It’s not just helping that person, but it’s indirectly helping their families and their children break their cycles because a lot of the people I have dealt with already and have interviewed already, their basis for their struggles and dysfunction all come back to family and the situations they grew up in.”

Shanna said the KCSO hopes to have a meeting on the KCRP to update the public on it in the future.