Faces of Fortune My name is John Halushka and I am a PhD candidate and adjunct instructor in the Department of Sociology at New York University. I study prisoner reentry and volunteer at The Fortune Society because I believe that mass incarceration represents the greatest civil rights crisis of our generation, and Fortune is at the front lines of fighting that battle. I’ve been a volunteer at Fortune since 2011. I learned about the organization after attending “Think Outside the Cell,” a national symposium on mass incarceration held at the Riverside Church in Harlem. It was through this experience that I decided to get involved as a volunteer and conduct a research project at The Fortune Society.
JOHN HALUSHKA Volunteer
My research at Fortune focuses on how clients navigate the barriers to employment and fatherhood, and the role that Fortune plays in facilitating this process. Over the course of the last three years, I participated in the Employment and Family Services units as an intern and ethnographic researcher. In addition to collecting participantobservation and interview data, I have also worked with clients one-on-one and in group settings to create resumes; I designed and taught curriculum on resume writing in the Job Readiness Workshop; I conducted mock job interviews, made outreach phone calls, and performed general office duties as well. I am proud to be a part of the volunteer team at Fortune and I am immensely grateful for Fortune’s openness and generosity in allowing me to conduct my dissertation research here.
My name is Hubert Lila and I currently hold the position of Resource Coordinator for Employment Services at Fortune. I am also the Mentoring Coordinator for our Project Compass Program and was recently elected captain of the Crisis Incident Team. As a formerly incarcerated individual, I had the opportunity to chair several prison-based organizations such as Community Minded Organization, CAU, and ILC. During this time, I was fortunate to cultivate essential skills that have aided my professional development at Fortune. It was also during my incarceration that I was successful at obtaining a Bachelor’s of Science in Business followed by a Masters of Professional Studies.
HUBERT LILA
In the past year, I volunteered for several Fortune events, and witnessed how The Fortune Society’s mission impacts our community at large. I also believe in helping the entire Fortune community by serving on the LGBTQI Task Force and organizing a tie drive where I supervised the collection of 1,100 ties for our participants. I currently volunteer for the Nassau County D.A.’s Community Outreach Program (COTA) helping people reintegrate into society and make a positive transition.
Resource Coordinator Employment Services
I am grateful for the opportunity to work here and to my supervisors for identifying my potential and for continually drawing out my talent and abilities. I am also appreciative of our clients for their daily inspiration. At Fortune, we are blessed to witness miracles every day, where people grow, change, and transform their lives. I am thankful for the opportunity to grow and learn alongside them.
My name is Earl Harriston. I came to Fortune around July of 2013. I did the two-week Job Readiness program in Employment Services. After a month or two, I was working two jobs but remembered learning about the Environmental Remediation Training that Laura Senkevitch, the teacher for the class, had told my workshop about. I thought this training would give me more skills and lead to a better job. So I called my career advisor and she referred me to Laura. After an interview and admissions screening, I was accepted into the six-week Environmental Remediation Training program in April 2014.
EARL HARRISTON Client
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It was a great class that Laura made even more interesting. She was clear and patient and taught things in a way that made it easy to understand. After I graduated, I decided to take part in a paid internship provided by Fortune and I was hired by Build it Green in the Gowanus neighborhood. I worked in a warehouse setting with junk lovers for people who donated stuff. I cleaned it off and stacked it. It was good work because otherwise that stuff would have ended up in a landfill. The internship is over and I’m going to continue with Build it Green. I have a full-time job with them now as a floor associate, making sure all the donations get put in their proper place. Fortune means a lot to me. I’m so thankful that I came here. I was in the halfway house and thought I could just do all of this on my own. Once I put myself in these shoes to walk in the journey, it was amazing. I’m going to be around Fortune and stay in touch.
The Fortune News
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