My Experience working with KFTC

Working as a voter empowerment contractor with KFTC has been such a meaningful experience for me.  I was very active in my community for most of my adult life prior to experiencing incarceration and becoming a felon.  I volunteered at multiple organizations, I was active in the recovery community, and I felt like an active participant in life.  I had some negative experiences in recovery and distanced myself from communities that had been my home for so long.  These had been places where I found like minded people who were determined to be better and do better, to help others.  Its absence felt stark in contrast to life with community.  

Many of the places I volunteered were no longer an option due to being a felon.  Navigating the workforce was incredibly challenging.  Many of the companies I had worked with for a decade as an independent contractor no longer would work with me.  I kept cobbling together work while interviewing at company after company with offer letters rescinded upon the background check.  I let them know in the interview just what they would find and it was always, “Sorry, it’s a third party background check, it’s not up to us!” I needed to provide for myself and my one year old daughter and I had many sleepless nights worrying about how I was going to make it.  

"KFTC valued my time and was considerate of my feelings and needs by not allowing unpaid labor, ensuring we were taking good care of ourselves by checking in and encouraging self care, and I can’t leave out feeding us! "

My aunt has been a long time member of KFTC and was eager to tell me of work that not only took no issue with felonies, but WANTED and valued people with felonies in their pasts!  I was cautiously excited!  When I got the job I felt excited for the work we would be doing with voter restoration, but mostly relieved that with that income during election season I would have more of a buffer to figure out other work!  I could not have known how life changing this work would be.  Let me start with how incredible it feels to work for people who value your time and labor!! I worked for countless corporations who tried to force as much labor as humanly possibly out of me with no regard to my physical or mental health.  

KFTC valued my time and was considerate of my feelings and needs by not allowing unpaid labor, ensuring we were taking good care of ourselves by checking in and encouraging self care, and I can’t leave out feeding us!  I cannot express how much being fed is my love language!  It was so foreign to me to be treated with this respect from an employer and it set the bar higher for what I will accept from employers in the future!  As someone who cannot vote, it felt amazing to encourage others to use their voices in the election.  My voice had strength somewhere even if not at the polls.  

Gathering petition signatures to restore voting rights, registering voters, handing out voter guides, and talking to voters on the phone were some of the things we did.  More importantly to me, we connected with each other as a community and with our larger community.  I got to learn and grow with some of the best people I have ever met!  We had important conversations together about all sorts of issues our community is facing and shared with each other our own unique perspectives.  We took these conversations with us to all of the events we worked.  We showed up for each other as more than just coworkers, need a ride, need a plate, need a sitter (thank you D’Erika!!!). We had each other's backs.  We got to inform so many people with felonies in their pasts that they regained their right to vote in 2019!  It was beautiful the way people's faces lit up when they heard they could vote again.  

"More importantly to me, we connected with each other as a community and with our larger community."

Being in a system that feels like having a crushing weight on your back, pushing you to the ground every time you try to stand, anything that lessens that load feels like a cool drink of water in the desert.  It can give us the hope and motivation needed to keep going and to insist that yes we do matter!  Our experiences are valuable!  We have a strength together that will not be diminished by ignorant politicians trying to say our voices should not be heard!   It’s not up to them.  Working with KFTC gave me something more valuable than money, something I didn’t know how much I needed, a renewed sense of purpose in my community.

- Roseileen Fitts, JCKFTC Member