WITNESS to Healing: A Lifeline from Incarceration to Entrepreneurship
- Sabrina McCrear
- Apr 21
- 4 min read
Howard University News Service
BROOKLYN — In New York, LGBTQ+ youth who have experienced incarceration or know someone who has, now have a space to cultivate their entrepreneurial skills and pave a career path in the wake of their brush with the law.
WITNESS to Mass Incarceration, founded by Evie Litwok, a formerly incarcerated lesbian woman, aims to provide LGBTQ+ youth with opportunities and tools for entrepreneurship. She facilitates a community and safe space for teens and young adults to heal and grow from their past or current situations. Litwok’s emphasis on entrepreneurship stems from personal experience facing systematic structures that inhibit formerly incarcerated individuals from finding sustainable jobs. Yet, the organization’s familial environment contributes to youths improved mood and mental health as substantial derivative of WITNESS’ ultimate goal.
“I know that formerly incarcerated, wrongfully convicted system impacted people all suffer. But if we’re together, we’re a family and we understand each other in a way nobody can,” Litwok said. “This is a home. It’s not an office. It’s a safe space.”
After experiencing incarceration, LGBTQ+ youths and adults face a unique set of challenges upon reentry into society. Litwok said the opportunities are scarce and although there is a plethora of support groups, finding a job is one of the biggest hurdles, hence her enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.
“Starting a new business is the way to control, in my opinion, the best way you have control over your life. Even though that’s a very hard struggle because you have no access to financial resources,” Litwok said. “Everybody who has started a business across this country has done it through sheer will and very scrappy ways, friends and family, but they’ve done it. If they’ve managed to become successful, they started on the ground.”
Jaheim Herring, a 23-year-old up-and-coming fashion designer, is one of 25 individuals in WITNESS’ Art of Tailoring inaugural cohort. The program equips youths with the skills to create their clothes from scratch, including taking measurements and making patterns.
“I’m hoping that this program can help me cultivate my skills so I can grow my brand and so I can grow myself,” Herring said.
The budding fashion designer has never experienced incarceration but has family members who are currently incarcerated. Herring said he was saddened when he heard two of his closest cousins were imprisoned but has since found community in the program and in Brooklyn’s ballroom scene—an LGBTQ+ POC subculture consisting of community houses and competitive fashion shows.
“It’s nice finding that community and being able to learn different things about myself creatively, emotionally and with other people,” he said.
Litwok strives to facilitate a family-like community to help individuals persevere through hardships. Although WITNESS is not a formal trauma-informed care program, LGBTQ+ youth who have access to affirming communities and support are less likely to attempt suicide, according to the Trevor Project. Additionally, those with supportive parents, guardians or significant figures reported fewer depressive symptoms according to a study from the University of Texas at Austin.
“I do believe that your mental health is better when you’re housed, when you’re food secure, and when you’re able to earn a living and take care of yourself,” Litwok said.
Furthermore, LGBTQ+ youth often face adverse challenges while incarcerated that negatively impact their mental health. 10.3% of LGBTQ+ youth reported peer sexual assault compared with 1.5% of heterosexual cisgender youth, a study by the U.S. Department of Justice reported.
“We come out of prison or jail, traumatized….So when you’re coming out of prison, you’re in a survival mode, and I think that probably every day you have a little bit of depression and anxiety. You almost have to work through that whether you like it or not, if you’re going to earn a living,” Litwok said.
The National Institute of Health also, attributes “lack of access to supportive services, as well as LGBTQ-affirming medical and mental health care” to mental health inequities during incarceration and reentry.
However, WITNESS’s efforts to foster unique opportunities for LGBTQ+ youth do not come without a cost. As a non-profit organization, WITNESS relies on partnerships, grants and external funding to invest in their programs. The Art of Tailoring initiative is a partnership with the Hetrick-Martin Institute (HMI). HMI provides a haven and resources for LGBTQ+ youth between the ages of 13 and 24 and their families. Amongst their contributions to the LGBTQ+ community, HMI often sponsors ballroom events like the ones Herring and his friend’s host.
In collaboration with HMI, WITNESS can pay students $20 an hour for the first stage of the program, or the pre-apprentice program. This stage is structured as two 12-week sessions where youths learn the fundamentals of tailoring, attending class twice a week from four to seven p.m. on Mondays and Fridays.
The second stage, the apprenticeship program, is a 12-month period where individuals receive training in fashion design, business strategy and digital marketing. The final stage—the incubator program, allows youths to use the skills they learned to create their own business.
The program costs $6,250 a year—or $12,500 for the two-year duration of the program—to equip 25 individuals with the necessary skills and tools to be a successful entrepreneur in the fashion industry.
“The cost of keeping one person….at Rikers, is $567,000 a year. So….why put someone in the prison system, that’s only going to traumatize them…. When you can give a technical program, $12,500, and the result is that most people will be motivated to start a business.” Litwok said. “That doesn’t mean they’ll succeed, but they’ll at least have the skills and the opportunity….and they’ll have a support network.”
Litwok said the organization will continue to foster a positive environment through WITNESS for LGBTQ+ individuals in need of sanctuary. Their upcoming pop-up shop collaboration with the Queens Economic Development Corporation (QEDC) on June 19 seeks to showcase the work from the inaugural cohort. QUEDC is a non-profit organization focused on helping small businesses, entrepreneurs and communities grow and succeed.
“Our tagline is, ‘behind every sentence is a human story.’ I do believe that people would be more supportive of us if they stopped othering us and start realizing that we’re human beings,” she said.
Sabrina McCrear is a reporter for HUNewsService.com
