In the News: Buffalo State’s THRIVE Program Featured on WIVB
Buffalo State University’s new workforce development program, Training in Hospitality for Returning Individuals are Valued Employees (THRIVE), was featured on WIVB News 4 on November 1.
THRIVE is a collaboration between Buffalo State’s Continuing Professional Studies Office, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office, and Peaceprints of WNY that provides imprisoned individuals with culinary and job readiness skills, as well as connections to employment partners, so that upon release they have a path toward viable employment. This helps reduce the risk of reoffense and reincarceration.
The WIVB segment, “THRIVE Program Sets Up Erie County Inmates for Success with New Skills,” by Dave Greber, interviewed chef Don Schmitter, lecturer in Buffalo State’s Hospitality and Tourism Department, and Thomas Diina, chief of community reintegration for the Erie County Sheriff’s Office.
“I grew up on the East Side of Buffalo, tough neighborhood,” said Schmitter, who visits the Erie County Correctional Facility in Alden to provide culinary instruction. “I very well could have ended up here had it not been for some luck. So I looked at it that way: people deserve a second chance. I wasn’t so sure how the reception would be. I figured it might just be, ‘I want to get out of my pod and be able to do something, maybe I don’t have so much interest,’ but it has not been that at all. They have been extremely engaged, very interested, very motivated.”
“When Sheriff Garcia took office, it was one of his priorities,” Diina said, “to continue to improve, expand, enhance the program offerings that were available within the jail, and again, start working towards putting people in a position to succeed when they get out. The reality is, that’s where corrections, especially local corrections, is moving to. It’s evolved from just locking people up behind a door. Now it’s really being used as a primary intercept point to remove some of those barriers to success, to put people in a better place to succeed once they get out.”
Close to three dozen men have participated in the program, including Robert Leon, who said he is ready to go back and see his son.
“At first I was nervous, you know. I was cooking with other prisoners, so I just gave it a try,” Leon said. “To be honest, we’re all cool, we’re all good friends, so it’s a pretty cool thing.”
While Schmitter provides culinary skills, Peaceprints offers job readiness training and connection to employment partners like Delaware North, Seneca One, Riverworks, and Catholic Health.
“There’s no hiding the elephant in the room,” Schmitter said. “They know they have a record, and that’s something to overcome. But the good part is that we have partners that already know that. They know you’re here. They’re meeting you here.”
Photo by Christopher Horvatits, Erie County Sheriff's Office public information officer.
