My name is James Mann and I am the founder and director of The Westside Recovery Project, which is a nonprofit organization that began as I saw that so many people are not reached by the existing programs and institutions and are thus failed. Back when you knew pretty much everyone because, in most cases, our families had been living there together for generations. That is what I love about growing up around Stringtown and Fifty/Hawthorne. I have returned to the Westside after spending most of the last 20 years in prison to find that we are losing too many of those we love and cherish. While serving this last 13 months inside on a parole violation I lost some friends that I cared for and loved: Ronnie Decker and Carla Marie Ferguson. As a matter of fact, there were 5 or 6 others that passed due to overdose just in the couple months prior to my release back onto parole. It was then that I began brainstorming on possible methods that I could contribute to the solution instead of the problem and The Westside Recovery Project is the response I chose to focus my efforts and energy. As we become more of an actuality than just a dream looking to gain community support and funding it is the hopes of the founder that we create an organized effort to combat this problem on two fronts: by better assisting and supporting those returning to our communities and conducting more outreach efforts in the community to confront those we hope to help where they are. Much of this outreach will hopefully help us encounter the younger ones that need to see the realistic consequences of such a limited existence while also having their eyes opened to their true potential and the power of changing a couple of the things they have followed or fallen off into can assure them a fuller, more rewarding and memory rich existence. Such a major task will require much more than just my thoughts and efforts, which is why I hope that I am not the only one that longs for change.
