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IU McKinney Professor Lahny Silva has received the Charles R. Bantz Chancellor’s Community Fellowship for 2022 in recognition of her scholarship and work in the re-entry community in the metropolitan Indianapolis area. Professor Silva’s research project is titled “Community Engagement at its ‘Best’: A Holistic Approach to Prisoner Reentry.” The $40,000 award will support her work with the IU School of Social Work to provide resources to the reentry community and help them overcome civil legal barriers as they navigate a successful reintegration process.

“The IU McKinney community is proud of and for Professor Silva,” said Dean Karen E. Bravo. “The depth and breadth of her work create extraordinary opportunities for our students to work on and achieve skills in social justice work.  Together, they achieve transformational impact in the lives of members of our community.”

Professor Silva will utilize the grant award associated with the fellowship to experiment with social-work type skills in the Re-Entry Assistance and Community Help Clinic at IU McKinney. The clinic course is comprised of three components: mentor-advocacy in the federal reentry problem-solving court, community outreach in hot spot zones in Indianapolis, and legal representation for those seeking specialized driving privileges and criminal history correction of errors.  The goal of the Bantz fellowship project is to test a collaborative effort between social work students and law students in the clinic to reduce recidivism and enhance public safety at the grassroots level in Indianapolis, Professor Silva said. “Adding social work students to our model will enhance our ability to provide services from a trauma-informed lens and access a broader range of quality services in a resource and referral network,” Professor Silva said.

The clinic work also has had an impact on Professor Silva’s scholarship. Prior to her clinical work, she focused on what she calls bigger picture “systems” topics such as employment and housing as barriers to reentry. “With REACH, I learned that the obstacles wreaking the most havoc are those related to more micro issues such as administrative driver’s license suspensions based upon unpaid traffic tickets and fees, and child support arrearages earned while in prison that amount in the tens of thousands of dollars.” Professor Silva said. “The reentry discourse concerning these more micro issues is minimal, which has inspired me to bring them to the forefront.”

The Charles R. Bantz Chancellor’s Community Fellowship award is intended to support and advance the work of established researchers with significant connections in the community. The program’s goals are to highlight work in and with the community to learn and address local needs, translate research into solutions that improve people’s lives, offer students an innovative and distinctive educational experience, and foster an engaged and welcoming campus where all individuals are valued and supported.