BIZ NEW ORLEANS - Operation Restoration is one of 361 small nonprofits that billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott announced as recipients of $640 million in gifts. The New Orleans-based nonprofit received a $2 million dollar gift in response to a competitive Yield Giving Open Call that initially received more than 6,300 applications.

BRG - The board’s newly elected members, who will serve for a three-year term beginning in 2024, include:

Syrita Steib, Founder and President/CEO, Operation Restoration

SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER - Operation Restoration Grant Amount: $150,000

Operation Restoration serves women and girls who have been affected by incarceration, particularly in housing, higher education and voting. The New Orleans-based nonprofit advocates for policy reform statewide and nationwide. It will use its two-year grant to launch a year-round voter education and registration campaign throughout Louisiana; add a lead, full-time organizer for statewide field and digital voter outreach; train staff to maintain nonpartisanship across all activities and communications; create and distribute voter education materials; and host community outreach and voter registration events to build collaborative power among civic leaders throughout Louisiana. Through its Operation Girls program, it will provide civic and voter engagement education and leadership development among Black girls and LGBTQ+ youth.

BY REBECCA HOLLAND | NOLA.COM - Syrita Steib was 19 years old when she was sentenced to 10 years in prison and $1.9 million in restitution. When she got out, she didn’t know her bra size, how to use a cellphone or the internet, or where she was going to live or work.

Today, she runs an organization with a $4.4 million operating budget that provides transitional housing, clothing, financial literacy classes, education access and other wraparound services to formerly incarcerated women. In 2022, Operation Restoration provided services to more than 1,100 women.

BY JEREMY MARSHALL | NEW ORLEANS MAGAZINE - Operation Restoration is a New Orleans-based nonprofit dedicated to empowering justice-impacted women and girls. Committed to breaking the cycle of incarceration, the organization provides vital support and resources, including education, employment, housing, and social services to help women successfully reenter the community. Through programs such as for-credit college-in-prison classes and accelerated lab assistant training, Operation Restoration addresses systemic issues within the criminal legal system and creates opportunities for women to restore and transform their lives.

BIZ NEW ORLEANS - Operation Restoration, a New Orleans-based organization that supports women and girls impacted by incarceration, announces the hiring of eight new staff members:

NICHOLE CHRISTIAN | THE KRESGE FOUNDATION - NOLA-based grassroots organization, led and staffed completely by formerly incarcerated women, restores the whole woman financially, educationally, socially and artistically

In the world that Syrita Steib inhabits, her name is a near synonym for second chances. Some use words like trailblazing and bold to describe the impact of her work as founder of a Louisiana-based nonprofit Operation Restoration dedicated to helping women and girls navigate life after incarceration.

NEW ORLEANS — From Operation Restoration:

A dozen women impacted by incarceration have achieved something many of them thought nearly impossible six weeks ago. That’s when they began an intensive Lab Assistant Rapid Reskilling Program to train as certified medical laboratory assistants. After successfully completing the rigorous training, the students, ages 18 to 57, receive certificates in a graduation ceremony on Aug. 5 at Union Bethel AME Church in Central City.

MARIELLE SONGY | BIG EASY MAGAZINE - CANScantSTAND was founded as a program within Operation Restoration to advocate for the law’s repeal that disproportionately targets the LGBTQ+ community and particularly trans women of color. While it duplicated the state’s anti-prostitution law, CANS made offenses punishable by five years in prison and ten years to life as a registered sex offender, while prostitution is a misdemeanor offense.

PRESS RELEASE | AP NEWS - Jobs for the Future (JFF) is announcing 22 recipients of Ascendium Education Group’s Ready for Pell grant initiative. Ready for Pell is designed to help institutions that provide postsecondary education in prisons navigate the upcoming changes to the Pell Grant program for student financial assistance, giving learners who are incarcerated new opportunities for educational attainment and increased economic mobility.

BY MADELEINE DAVISON | NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER

BY MATT SLEDGE | STAFF WRITER AT NOLA.COM

BY ASHLEY WHITE AND MONTRELL CARMOUCHE | THE ADVOCATE

BY SUZANNE PFEFFERLE TAFUR | CONTRIBUTING WRITER AT NOLA.COM

NEW ORLEANS (FOX 8 LIVE)

“It hasn’t been treated as if we are in a global pandemic and people are dying every day. It is definitely, in New Orleans, business as usual as it relates to bail … The time is now; we need to act now. We need to get folks out of there now, like we can talk about the logistics later. Right now we need to move and get folks out of jail.”

NEW ORLEANS (WDSU) - The mayor of New Orleans is encouraging recently released inmates to take advantage of a stimulus program to help them re-enter society during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell issued the following statement on the launch of “Returning Citizen Stimulus Program,” a collaboration between the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO) and its partners:

FROM UNPRISONED: STORIES FROM THE SYSTEM | WWNO (NPR)

BY CAMILA DOMONOSKE | WWNO (NPR)