At 10 a.m. on a Saturday, RaeLynn Costa crouches next to a plastic kiddie pool, massaging oatmeal shampoo into the scruffy coat of a shelter dog named Buddy. She murmurs softly to the water-wary pooch as she rinses the soap from his fur and towels him dry. Her 14-year-old daughter, Nicole, along with a squad of other teenage girls, are also on hand to help scrub down mucky canines and cars at the combination dog wash/car wash fundraiser at First Church of the Brethren, 2115 Yale Blvd. It was Costa’s idea to host the unique church event, but that’s not what makes her special. In less than a year, the 45-year-old mother and animal lover has transcended from serving a drug sentence at Decatur Correctional Center to taking care of herself, her family and even her community.
Her key to success? Project Return, she says — a Springfield nonprofit organization that helps incarcerated mothers with young children re-enter society by linking them with an intimate group of trained volunteers. For at least one year after their release, these women are helped to achieve financial stability, find housing, access health care and reconnect with their family and children.
“If I would’ve come out and done it on my own,” Costa says, “I can’t promise I’d be where I am today.” Project Return was founded in 2003 by Luther Memorial Church and three other area Lutheran congregations.
Three years later the nonprofit matched its first returning mother with its first partnership team. Since then five Project Return participants have graduated. At least 14 women and their children have been helped so far in 2009. According to the organization’s figures, an estimated 54.6 percent of former inmates return to Illinois prisons within three years of their release. Executive director Debi Edmund says that many women leaving prison suffer from what she calls “multi-abuse trauma” and easily pick up old habits if they don’t have any support.
“We may have a woman who suffers from addiction and mental health problems and domestic violence and a history of child abuse, so she’s going to have a struggle when she gets out,” she says. “This is probably the kind of person who can use our help the most.”