Shanna Angle didn’t know that she was moving into Schirmer House until a week prior to her release from the women’s prison in Vandalia, Missouri. She had planned to move into Heartland, a Christian compound in northeast Missouri, but the prison staff felt that she would have a more successful re-entry in St. Louis at the Schirmer facility. Today, three months after her release, she is relieved to be at Schirmer and knows that it was the right decision.

Shanna noted that the staff at Schirmer has been incredibly kind and helpful to her throughout her stay at the facility. “When I first arrived, Jessica [Gillen, Employment/Life Skills Specialist] said, ‘We’re here to hold your hope until you can hold it yourself.’ I came here without any hope,” Shanna said. “The staff has pushed, prodded and encouraged me through a very difficult time.”

Shanna considers her biggest accomplishment so far to be finding employment. “Two different employers hired me and then fired me the next day,” said Shanna. “Someone higher up the chain was not ready to hire someone with my criminal background, so I was never even given a chance.”

Today, Shanna works at IHOP as a cook. She opens the store two mornings a week, and she has started taking tests to move to a higher position. She has worked in food service for ten years, and her dream is to own her own restaurant someday-- a “ma and pa place-- without a pa,” Shanna joked.

Shanna’s next step is to find a place to live. She has resolved to stay in the St. Louis area, although she is not required to do so. Because of the nature of her crime, Shanna doesn’t feel like it is an option to go home, a very small town (just 324 people) in southwest Missouri. “It wouldn’t be a good environment for me,” she said. She has adjusted well to city living, but she still sleeps with her bedroom window open so she can hear the crickets outside, which reminds her of home.

So, Shanna is in the process of pursuing an ad that she found on Craigslist in order to rent a room in a house in University City. “The first line of the ad was, ‘Is your criminal background holding you back from finding housing?’” Shanna noted. “I’m hoping that I am the type of person that this woman is willing to rent to.”

In the meantime though, Shanna is still enjoying her time at Schirmer House. She has developed a wonderful relationship with her roommate, Ashley, a 23-year-old struggling with drug addiction. Shanna has become a big sister figure to Ashley, offering advice and serving as a rock for Ashley’s sobriety. Since Shanna’s crime is not related to addiction, she is in the minority at Schirmer and says that she saw an opportunity to serve some of the other residents at the facility.

“When I first moved to Schirmer, I was so frustrated that I had to attend Alcoholic’s Anonymous meetings with the rest of the residents,” Shanna said. “Now, I’m glad that I can be there as a support system for the other women. One of the AA books has a statement in it that directs people to stop being self-centered. It’s not all about what someone else can do for you, it’s about what you can do for someone else.”

Shanna serves as a sober friend and support system for many of the residents who don’t have anyone else to support them. “Every time Ashley leaves the apartment, I say ‘stay sober’,” Shanna said. “I hope that if she has the opportunity to use [drugs] while she is out, that will be the last thing that she will have heard and that will stick with her.”

For Shanna, supporting the other residents is one way that she can give back to the community and begin to reconcile her crime. “I’m certainly ashamed of my crime and I certainly have a great deal of remorse for it. It’s like a pebble in a lake—you throw one stone and so many people are affected by it,” Shanna said. “Coming here and being with these women, I realize that I have a great deal to offer. I have a lot to give back and a lot to teach. While my criminal background does put some walls up for me, it has also empowered me. I realized that I am stronger than I thought I was.”

Shanna attributes her successes at Schirmer and her positive mindset toward re-entry to her faith. “I had always looked at myself as God’s practical joke,” Shanna said. “When God needed a laugh, God would look down at me and see the kid that always screwed things up.” But, Shanna found God again her first day in prison, and her life has changed since then. “I believe that God is what everyone here needs. I hear the women here talk about needing to fill the emptiness in their lives—the hole left by alcohol, or drugs, or sex or whatever they need to give up—God is there to fill that hole.”

In addition to her faith, Shanna has been lucky to have the support of her parents and her 18-year-old son. Her parents have been to St. Louis to visit a couple of times, and they are planning to visit again with her son for Thanksgiving.

“Someone told me the other day that I’m spoiled,” Shanna said. “But I’m not spoiled, I’m blessed. I don’t take advantage of what has been given to me. I am so grateful for everything that I have.”