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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING MR. MARK MITCHELL FOR HIS DEDICATION, COMMITMENT AND LEADERSHIP TO THE ENGLEWOOD COMMUNITY
WHEREAS, Mark M. Mitchell accepted the position of Director of Reentry Services for Teamwork Englewood in January of 2017. He revolutionized the organization’s reentry program in May of that year to develop a unique best-evidence model that has resulted in over 900 recently released middle-aged returning citizens becoming employed, with the many of them being first time employees and;
WHEREAS, For the past decade, Mr. Mitchell has volunteered as the Senior Reentry Coordinator for the National Alliance for the Empowerment of the Formerly Incarcerated. He is the Co-Founder of the Man-Up Spiritual Retreat, a men’s recovery-based community that meets annually throughout the United States for the last 20 years and;
WHEREAS, Mr. Mitchell himself has been detached from the penal system for over 20 years, after spending the bulk of his adult life involved in the Criminal Justice System with over 10 felony convictions. His commitment throughout the second half of his adult life has been to aid individuals whose lives have been impacted by a culture of drugs, crime and incarceration and;
WHEREAS, He has been drug free for 20 years and has an excellent understanding of the challenges one faces while in recovery. Since coming out of prison, he has attained four educational accomplishments: An A.A, in Science; a B.A. in Arts (minor in Criminal Justice); as well as two master’s degrees in Criminal Justice and Political and Justice Studies and;
WHEREAS; As a prominent figure in the Get Cleared campaign, he has used his knowledge of the Criminal Justice System to assist over 350 ex-offenders in expunging and sealing their criminal records in the last twelve months and;
WHEREAS, as a certified educator for the Community Justice Initiative, Mr. Mitchell has led Know Your Rights workshops to empower community members to invoke their Constitutional Rights when stopped by police. Mr. Mitchell plans to further expand Teamwork Englewood’s employment programming with funding from the A2J grant to focus on employment retention efforts; and
WHEREAS, Cook County Government acknowledges Mr. Mark M. Mitchell for transforming lives through community engagement.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Toni Preckwinkle President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners as well as the Board of Commissioners along with the 5.2 million residents of Cook County do hereby recognized Mr. Mark M. Mitchell for his invaluable, dedication, commitment and leadership to the residents of the Englewood Community and herewith express our sincere gratitude for your service to the community.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution is forwarded to Mr. Mark M. Mitchell and copy be placed upon the official record of the honorable body recognizing this auspicious occasion.
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