Prodigal Ministries is a Christian aftercare program helping men and women avoid prison return. Here they are offered love, training and motivation through rigorous programs and disciplined living in residential housing centers. Through role modeling and mentoring programs a strong desire and motivation toward purposeful, focused living, fostering self-respect and a sense of accomplishment are engendered. By encouraging and enabling education our clients are equipped with skills for employment and self-support. Recovery from addictive illness is promoted, including active participation in Twelve Step programs. Men and women, Christians and non-Christians are accepted. Our clients come from the Federal system and State Institutions, County Jails, and Probation and Parole.
Prodigal Ministries was founded in 1994 by an ex-offender who served a sentence of eight years at the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange, Ky. He observed the high return rate to prison. It was his dream to help the ex-offender establish himself in society, resume his family responsibilities, and live a meaningful life. Prodigal Ministries became the outcome of his dream.
Robinson S. Brown III and John Chilton shared this man�s dream by gathering others who saw the same vision and formed a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. These men have taken �forgiveness as a basis for living� and bridged people of fortunate backgrounds with those less fortunate. Many times the clients of Prodigal Ministries have been abandoned by their families and communities, wounded from the element of abuse: physical, mental and substance, and have victimized others. For many, it is a generational stronghold. Many, many people, both ex-offenders and those who have never been found guilty, have been impacted by the work of Prodigal Ministries.
A Board of Directors was established in 1994. Prodigal Ministries expanded its services and staffing by hiring a former prison chaplain as the Executive Director in November 1999. The additional hiring of two retired Deputy Wardens gives Prodigal Ministries� staff a total of over a hundred (100) combined years of prior work with the Kentucky Department of Corrections. Connecting the ministry with the Department of Corrections has made a good relationship with correctional institutions and the Division of Probation and Parole.