Charisma Gonzalez is a Youth Engagement Specialist on CASES Planning Alternatives & Creating Community (PACC) team. Housed within our Manhattan Supervised Release Program (MSRP)—which diverts New Yorkers from bail, jail, and incarceration to community-based treatment programs—PACC provides paid work experience (Work Crew), mentorship, and enrichment activities to young people enrolled in MSRP.
PACC is a small team made up of five youth engagement specialists, five case coordinators, one workforce specialist, one employment specialist, and an assistant team leader. The size of the team works to their advantage, forming a close-knit group that Charisma calls her family. As one of the youth engagement specialists, it’s Charisma’s job to meet with PACC participants in-person and mentor them to achieve their individual goals. “I help them make sure that when they leave the office, they’ve succeeded in something, they won something, even if it was just to let off some steam,” Charisma says. It’s celebrating these wins, big or small, that motivates them to come back the next day.
As a former CASES participant herself, Charisma can connect with her participants on a deeper level. “I wanted to work at CASES because I had been to prison twice, the first time when I was 19,” Charisma says. Having experienced prison and an alternative-to-incarceration program that changed the course of her life, Charisma can relate to what PACC youth are going through and impart wisdom to them through her mentorship. Charisma also thinks of her service to CASES as a way of paying it forward for the help she received when she was a young person who needed support. “When I came back to CASES and got hired, I promised myself that I’d try my best to help them because that’s what CASES did for me. I wanted to show gratitude to this program.”
Joining PACC was not the first time Charisma found family at CASES. After being released from prison and starting her CASES program, Charisma met her mentor, Shontell, who left an unforgettable mark on her. “I call her my second mom,” Charisma says. “I grew up in an environment where we had more people going to prison than graduating. And she was the one person trying to help me because she saw my potential.” Charisma uses the bond she formed with Shontell as a young adult navigating some of the most difficult times of her life to inform her own role in her community today. “Now that I’m in her shoes, I see that this wasn’t just a job to her. This was her calling.”
The most rewarding part of Charisma’s work with PACC is when she gets to see the goals her participants have been working on come to fruition. For one PACC member, this looks like signing up for therapy for the first time. For another, this looks like starting an application for housing. And for yet another, success is spending time outside while staying out of trouble. “It shows me that I’m not just talking. They’re listening, you know, and they’re actually taking the initiative to do better.”
Although the main goal of PACC is to help youth complete their court requirements, avoid unnecessary detention, and successfully exit the criminal legal system, there’s so much more to the program. With opportunities like Work Crew, for example, youth get the chance to gain paid, hands-on job experience that sets them up for success when they join the workforce. In PACC, young people are working towards goals that support their overall well-being. “They’re not just going to come in and fulfill the requirement for supervised release,” Charisma states. “A lot of our graduates leave with something, whether it’s a job, an apartment, or better mental health.”
