Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris announced today that DeAndre Brown has been promoted to permanent executive director of the Shelby County Office of Reentry. Brown has served as interim executive director since August of 2021. Brown and his wife, Vinessa Brown, founded Lifeline to Success, a nonprofit organization for ex-offenders, after his own incarceration and reentry.
According to a press release from Harris’ office, Brown has expanded programming focused on the mental health of returning citizens since joining the Office of Reentry, including hosting a job fair and block party that drew hundreds. Brown has also extended the FOCUSED program to include inmates with the Division of Corrections. FOCUSED combines job training with other assistance such as family reconnection, financial literacy, and voting rights restoration. In addition, Brown has also established in-prison training programs for janitorial work and the care of natural African American hair.
“DeAndre Brown has shown that he is devoted to helping the formerly incarcerated turn their lives around,” said Harris. “We had hoped his experience and connections to the community would help to grow the reentry programming, and, we were right.”
“I still don’t believe this is happening,” said Brown. “I am actually living the dream. I promise the citizens of Shelby County to use everything in me to make sure the men and women in this program have an opportunity to be successful when they return from prison.”