Many women across Florida will not celebrate Mother s Day at a church, a park or a fancy restaurant with their children today.
Instead, they ll drive through several counties, enter a fenced-off property, have their purses searched and raise their hands for a pat-down at one of the state s 57 correctional facilities.
Their sons and daughters are among the more than 87,000 inmates imprisoned within the walls of the Florida Department of Corrections. As a mother, you go there for love, but it s always a sad time for me, said Lisa Dames of Hobe Sound, whose three sons have all been incarcerated at some point in their lives. Going to these prisons is a horrible experience.
STUART Lisa Dames started her nonprofit with a vision, some office space and the inspiration of her late son. But she launched Reverse The Door in Stuart in late 2019 without any office equipment.
Her nonprofit s mission is to help people with nonviolent felony records obtain work and education, as well as assist the families of the incarcerated person. I was lacking everything, said Dames, who previously was the president of The Banner Lake Club, which provides youth programs in Hobe Sound. I was working off my personal laptop.
That changed last year when Comcast helped Dames and thousands of other minority-owned businesses. The internet and cable company gave Dames, who is Black, a couple of laptops, tablets and a year of free Wi-Fi service.