“Mayor Bloomberg Presents Apartment Keys to New Residents Including Formally Incarcerated Individuals and Low Income Families

NEW YORK – Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today joined The Fortune Society, Jonathan Rose Companies, and federal, state and local officials in celebrating the opening of Fortune’s “Castle Gardens,” a mixed-use affordable, supportive and green apartment complex in West Harlem. Located at 625 West 140^th Street , the new 110,000 square-foot building will provide 114 apartments for homeless and formerly incarcerated individuals and low income families from the local community. The Fortune Society is one of the most respected and effective alternative to incarceration and reentry agencies in the country.” Read the full story after the jump!

“According to an old Native American proverb, there are two wolves in each of us. The good wolf, and the bad wolf. And whichever one we feed is the one that will survive.  

I myself have fed both. I’ve fed the bad wolf to the point that I was living like one. I treated everything and everyone like a potential meal. Until eventually my journey with the bad wolf led me to prison. It wasn’t in prison that I found the other wolf, but it was in prison that I learned to care about it.

My experience on the inside has shown me how to nurture a side of me that had always been there. And its because of that nurturing that I’ve been trying to show others that’s its ok to feed the good wolf…”

Read the full post after the jump!

Check out this week’s edition of the DRCPP Weekly Email Update, available here!

(Tuesday, August 17th, 2010)

…Then, she went to The Fortune Society.

“Everybody here is beautiful,” she gushed. “They believed in me.”

In the last two months, they helped her get the apartment, offered the GED course and got her substance-abuse counseling…

Read the full article by clicking here!

This exciting NEW FEATURE will highlight the work of Fortune’s clients on Rikers Island who are participating in a creative writing workshop as part of the Fortune R.I.D.E. (Rikers Island Discharge Enhancement) program. The feature will be written by Rita Hickey, our dedicated volunteer creative writing instructor.

July 29, 2010

The eight of us with our white or black or golden skinned hands made an image of cooking camaraderie as we pulled apart 4 cooked chickens from Costco–total cost $19.80.  It was a first for all of them,  and a lesson I hope will stay with them. Now they know first hand how much meat you can get off of one of those chickens, how quick and easy it is, and by adding some halved grapes and toasted pecans you can create something fine.  We winged a dressing of mayonnaise, sour cream, olive oil, lemon juice and fresh dill from items we had on hand in the refrigerator.  The dill was “not perfect but still perfectly good,” to quote my neighborhood grocery store in Washington, D.C. from a sign that hangs over the bruised vegetable bin…

Community Meetings at “the Castle” + the Genesis of The Castle Play

Producing, directing, and touring with the play The Castle, which also I conceived and wrote with the help of the four cast members, has been a rewarding experience for me. It is the journey of three men and a woman, all of whom have been in prison and who arrived at The Fortune Academy to reclaim their lives…

There are so many places these days from which to draw cooking inspiration.  An article in Martha Stewart’s magazine, Everyday Food, took a little twist on the Italian antipasti platter, but made a sandwich using thick crusty bread and many of the items usually found on an antipasti platter. This sandwich could travel well to a picnic, or be enjoyed at home in your own backyard or kitchen…

Welcome to “Creative Works,” a regular feature written by Erika Loseman, Fortune’s Licensed Art Therapist. Erika will post explorations of the themes around which her art class is organized, vignettes about her talented students and the class, and photos of the colorful and expressive art participants create. The following is an introduction to what Erika’s art class is all about.