Salvation Army program helps women transition back into society

CASPER, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - While some people toss around the cliche of a “New Year, New You”... there really are those looking at 2023 as a second chance at life.

The Salvation Army in Casper participates in a program called Wyoming Step Up. Manager Penny Shoemake explains the purpose of this transitional program.

“We have several different assistant programs that we offer the ladies. They go to NA and AA meetings. They just want to... more or less become... get their selves back into society after being in prison for a length of time.”

“One of the women in the WYSTEUP program is Christi Powers. Who explains how drugs took her down a path she never intended to go down.”

“My kids used to go with their dad on the weekends. So I would go... what they might call ‘weekend warrior’...party at the bar on the weekends, you know? And eventually someone offered me harder drugs there, and I engaged in that. I got addicted. I got addicted really fast and really easy. And my life started spiraling out of control then.”

After losing her children, Powers spiraled even faster, eventually becoming a drug dealer herself. Which is how she ended up in prison.

“I remember the week before I got caught, I was praying to god like, ‘I don’t know what to do,’ but I had no hope left. I was desperate for... just different. So when I got arrested, the cop was like, ‘it’s going to be okay.’ I said, ‘I know. This is like... Relief.”

Powers spent two years behind bars. Upon release, with no money and no home to return to, she met with the folks at the Salvation Army and enrolled in the WYSTEPUP program. She’s now working two jobs while taking online courses to get her degree.

“This program has given me the opportunity to live, not just exist. It’s given me the opportunity to find out who I am again. Be self-sufficient. Not feel so much shame. I can finally let go of that because... That might be the things that I’ve done... But that’s not the person I am anymore.”

The Casper area program can assist up to eight women at a time. And right now, the program is doing exactly that.

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