About This Event
Join us for a RAILS Online Roundtable on how libraries can support reentry. Chad Rand, Outreach and Distributor Coordinator for the Education Justice Project’s Reentry Resource Program, will share the EJP reentry guide titled Mapping Your Future: A Guide to Successful Reentry, Illinois 2025.
Mapping Your Future, produced since 2015, is THE reentry guide for people released from prison returning home to live in Illinois. It includes guidance on what people in prison can do to prepare before release, as well as practical information on how to get an ID, obtain housing, employment training, and more. Their directory section includes resources such as reentry organizations, medical clinics, and community and advocacy organizations.
The Education Justice Project also has a guide for people who live with the threat of deportation called A New Path: A Guide to the Challenges and Opportunities After Deportation. This guide includes information on topics such as knowing your rights and employment options.
To learn more, visit the Reentry Resource Program’s website. This team also developed A New Path: Honduras to provide clear, practical information for individuals facing deportation to Honduras.
Chad Rand is the outreach and distribution coordinator for the Education Justice Project’s Reentry Resource Program. He is also an alumnus of EJP, having been incarcerated for nearly 13 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. He earned with BA in English and Theatre and currently works from the campus of the University of Illinois.
Lee Ragsdale directs the Education Justice Project's Reentry Resource Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The Reentry Resource Program connects people with the resources they need for a healthy transition to life after prison or deportation. EJP has produced the Illinois reentry guide, Mapping Your Future: A Guide to Successful Reentry since 2015. As a college student at Loyola University Chicago, Lee participated in the Campaign to End the Death Penalty in Illinois and later tutored in San Quentin Prison in California. As the partner of a formerly incarcerated and deported person, she has personal experience with the effects of incarceration and deportation on families. Lee has a BA in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and MAs in Spanish and English Linguistics from the University of Illinois. She lives with her husband in Mexico where they run the nonprofit organization, Mexipets Animal Rescue.