Help comes in many forms, and it doesn’t have to be financial. Carmen Hutson said one of the Chattanooga area community’s greatest needs is more employers and ones who are willing to accept people with criminal records, especially felons.
“When they leave prison and they come back into the community, it’s difficult for them to get back on their feet, so sometimes they go back into crime because nobody will give them an opportunity to succeed,” said Hutson, director of stability and community programming at the United Way of Greater Chattanooga.
Eddie Simms was one of those people. Simms is a former felon but wanted a better life for himself after completing his time, Hutson said. He was able to find that through the Neediest Cases Fund and his Building Stable Lives coach, Karen Nichols.
Nichols said Simms is a hard and talented worker.
After he finally secured a job, she was helping him reintegrate back into the working world. That’s when she learned Simms was in serious danger of backsliding. Although he had a car, Simms wasn’t legally driving due to having outstanding fines and being without car insurance.