Michael Adedokun’s face lights up when he talks about thechildren.
“My favorite job was teaching the kids. I was alwaysleading the children in Bible study – the children of theex-inmates.”
Adedokun spent his summer at Exodus Ministries, a program thathelps ex-convicts after their release from prison. Along with theirfamilies, the ex-convicts live for six months in an apartmentcomplex free of charge while learning life skills, looking for jobsand saving money for new housing.
SMU’s Maguire Center for Ethics sponsored Adedokun andfive other students through the Maguire and Irby Family PublicService Intern Program, which pay between $1,600 and $2,000 forvolunteer work over the summer.
Adedokun, an ordained minister of 10 years pursuing hismaster’s degree in theology, chose to work at Exodus forseveral reasons.
“Having done a similar internship program in Birmingham,England … the Exodus Ministry was never a difficultexperience for me. I found Exodus Ministry as a place ofopportunity to improve my skills of molding people morally,emotionally and psychologically,” said Adedokun.
Adedokun had a myriad of responsibilities: he taught ex-inmateshow to budget, helped them get jobs and led their children in Biblestudy.
“He did an outstanding job. The volunteers worked wellwith him, the residents responded well, and he has good leadershipskills,” said Jerry Groom, executive director of Exodus.
The situation at Exodus is grim, “because these people arejust coming out of jail they have no jobs, no clothes, nowhere tolive. Exodus tries to help them start new lives,” Adedokunsaid.
Exodus consists of a six-month program to integrate clients andtheir families into society. In order to graduate, ex-inmates mustattend different programs three times a week. The”overcoming” class focuses on breaking addictions.
Classes teach a variety of life skills, such as breakingaddictions, computer training, parenting, cooking and budgetmanagement.
Participants work, but Exodus acts as a bank in order to monitorspending habits and teach responsible money management.
In addition to the classes, there are meetings on Sunday andBible school for the children. Volunteers help every step of theway, teaching class and working on the apartment complex, whichhouses around 15 families.
“We always have a waiting list, but generally it’sfirst come, first serve,” Groom said. “It’s hightraffic because it’s a small apartment complex.”
Despite hardships, Exodus has been successful. They have had a75 percent completion rate for the program during the last twoyears, and none of those that have completed it have returned toprison.
Three families bought homes upon completion of the program, andmost others are in a down payment assistance program.
“The biggest struggle is to find homes after they completethe program. There is such a bias against ex-inmates in thecommunity … it makes it hard,” Groom said.
Adedokun first became involved with what he refers to as”urban ministry” while he was enrolled at theUniversity of Birmingham, England. He had moved there from Nigeriato pursue his undergraduate degree, where part of the graduationrequirements was volunteering at the 870 house.
“It was a private agency where you deal with peoplebetween the ages of 12 and 25 that have emotional difficulties.Most of them had trouble with dropping out of school; most of themwere sleeping under bridges.”
Adedokun finds that working with the kids is the most rewardingand challenging part of his volunteer experience. “We weretrying to build them psychologically and spiritually because theywere missing the fellowship of their parents in the past. So therewas no one to tell them ‘Oh, don’t do that. This iswhat you should do.’… So now, it’s likewe’re starting all over again,” he said.
But the fruits of his labor were well worth the effort.”You see a kind of joy and readiness to go out and begin anew life. Most of them come back after a couple of months and showtheir gratitude to Exodus,” he said.
When asked for any last comments, Adedokun advises thatstudents, “First of all discover … your own talent.When you discover your talent, explore ways of using your talentfor the benefit of society. And that’s what I did.”
