Straight Talk Support Group (STSG) has been a source of hope in the Durham community for 11 years. The organization is now asking for community donations to keep its transitional home afloat after state funding cuts in March. 

 

Straight Talk Support Group was created in 2013 by founder and executive director Bessie Elmore, whose son served 25 years in prison before his release. The support group functioned as a place for friends and family of justice-involved individuals to share their fears and anxieties with those in similar circumstances.   

 

In 2018, STSG opened a transitional home for previously incarcerated men. The home can house up to 21 men at a time, although that number is usually smaller to allow more individualized care for each resident.  

 

The building previously housed a youth correctional facility and provided services for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, according to the organization’s website. The transitional home is now the focus of STSG, although the support group still meets virtually every other week.   

 

STSG’s acronym also stands for its mission: serving to see greatness. To do this, residents of the home are required to abide by house rules designed to teach them valuable life skills. These include things like chores, curfew and attending mandatory classes in subjects such as financial literacy, childcare and employability.   

 

“It’s so important because the work that Straight Talk does knows that people need a lot more than a bed,” said Erin Parish. “People need that wrap-around support, and I think Elmore understands what it’s like as a mother trying to advocate for getting her son what he needed.” 

 

Parish is the executive director of Human Kindness Foundation, an organization based in Durham that promotes spirituality, mindfulness and wellbeing in correctional facilities around the United States. Human Kindness Foundation recently donated funding to STSG. 

 

Residents of the home said they are grateful for their experiences there. One former resident, Edward Scott, spent 30 years in a correctional facility before turning his life around because of a nine-month stay at STSG.  

 

Scott has since gotten married and purchased his own home. He owns a business with Bessie Elmore’s son, William Elmore, called Community Based Landscapers that hires and provides peer support for other previously incarcerated individuals.  

 

“I’m thankful because I had a big support system,” Scott said. “I saw other individuals who didn’t have what I had, and I was truly blessed. I wanted to be able to bless someone else just like I was blessed.”  

 

Scott now works at the home as the lead monitoring supervisor. He handles intake, staff training, and any conflicts that may arise among residents. 

 

Scott is one of 10 staff members working at STSG and one of more than 200 residents who have successfully passed through the transitional home before reentering society. 

 

Both Scott and William Elmore provide guidance on the resources former prisoners need. William Elmore said he is known as STSG’s “inside guy” for insight on how to best help residents succeed, and that the work the transitional home does is priceless, necessary and pertinent. 

 

“It’s an honor to humanize people who deserve it and have paid their debt to society,” said William Elmore. “A true second chance means being afforded the same opportunities as someone who didn’t go to prison. If transition is the beginning of that process, why not support it?” 

 

When the home first opened, it was considered a pilot program by the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS), according to Bessie Elmore. After years of being open and a reshuffling of NCDPS rules, she said, state funding was taken away.   

 

“Cutting the funding left us in a very awkward position looking for funds. That’s the gist of it,” she said. “We’re still looking for funds and we have some coming in, but it’s very slow.”  

 

The house has remained open with the help of community donations to the organization’s GoFundMe page and contributions from the Elmore family. Bessie Elmore stated that STSG is unlikely to receive state funding again, so they are looking into other avenues of income.   

 

Bessie Elmore said the organization has a few staff members working on applying for grants and facilitating fundraising campaigns. Although STSG is likely to receive two grants in 2025, she said, it will not be enough to cover the home’s expenses. It costs between $400,000 and $700,000 to run the home for one year.  

 

Parish said she hopes the people of Durham will recognize the work STSG does. She encourages the community to invest in the futures of men looking for a second chance by donating and supporting STSG’s mission. 

 

“I hope that people can recognize what Straight Talk has offered to our community for all the time it has been in existence,” she said. “We’re all members of this community, and it’s our responsibility to help people returning.” 

 

The STSG staff is determined to keep the transitional home open. 

 

“We’re very hopeful that someone somewhere will give and know how important this work is, how necessary stability and housing is for people that have been incarcerated, and that they’ll think of creative ways to support,” said William Elmore. 

 

Edited by Olivia Gschwind