David Robison

David Robison is a native Dallasite who graduated from J.N. Ervin High School, University of Texas at Arlington, and completed the MBA Program at the University of Phoenix.  He was employed in the public sector at the City of Dallas and the State of Texas in the following positions: City of Dallas, Instrument Technician, Water Utilities, Administrative Assistant, Office of Human Development, Program Manager, Evaluator, Investigator in the Department of Health & Human Services, where he completed RFP’s, Proposal Review, and Program Evaluations; State of Texas, District Parole Officer in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Parole Division.  He also was employed by and still volunteers with the West Dallas Community Centers as a Youth & Program Specialist.

 

David currently serves as the Founder and Director of Proactive Approaches to Community Supervision (PACS), a consulting and service agency with the mission to build communities, provide economic development, mentor youth and adults offenders in prevention as they return from incarceration.

 

PACS has many programs in a diverse structure, highlighted by TEMP Plus Offender Housing, CEO Job Fairs, Power Academies, and Vocational Programs for Offender Employment as practical answers for re-entry of offenders into the community.

 

David serves on the Board and is a Founding Director of Mentoring Effective Resources to Capable Youth, Inc. (MERCY Inc.), a youth mentoring non-profit organization.  Renaissance Power Mentoring (RPM) is a key component of MERCY Inc. 

 

While being gainful employed in the public sector for the City of Dallas and State of Texas, he pursued an alternate career path in Entertainment Marketing and Promotions.  This led to the formulation of Continental Management and CAD Global Marketing Group. This career path provided experiences in Television, Radio, Video, Music, Concerts, Sports, Conference Planning, and Independent Record Promotions.  He provided promotional, marketing, and production services to events such as the Budweiser Superfests, Coca Cola Music Festivals, Miller’s Class Acts, Black College Football Classics, and Professional Boxing. He was the Executive Producer of the CBS Christmas Eve Special which aired on 80% of the CBS Network in 2005. 

 

He also provided conference-planning services to the National Association of Black Social Workers and the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice as a commitment to community service.

 

David also provided community service as a speaker to universities, youth groups and community-based organizations to include the University of North Texas, West Dallas Community Centers, Dallas Head Start, and Dallas County Youth Dentition Services.  He has also served as the President of the Dallas Chapter of the National Association of Black Social Workers for two separate terms and member of the national steering committee.

 

David originated, planned, and operated the PACS’s CEO Job Fair in January 1996 in Dallas Texas.  There were over 90 companies in attendance to hire offenders. There were over 2,500 offenders that attended the job fair with many being employed on the spot.  The U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections requested PACS CEO Job Fair to be presented at the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice National Conference & Training Institute in Kansas City in 1997 and the production of a CEO Job Fair Manual.  

 

Several years later many of the offenders that got jobs at the job fair came to him with the complaint that they could not get decent housing to lease or buy.  After researching this matter, PACS started The Ex-offender Mortgage Program (TEMP), where new homes are constructed and sold to offenders with no money down or closing costs.

 

As the information regarding the PACS Program reached Congressman Danny Davis of Chicago the co-sponsor of the Second Chance Act on Re-entry, the request was made and honored to present PACS Programs at the Congressional Black Caucus ALC in 2004 and 2005.

 

The U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service, Southwest Region, deployed David as a Community Liaison Specialist in Shreveport, Louisiana after a police shooting of a black suspect armed with only a cell phone. The suspect was shot over twenty times.  David was brought in to work with the community, police department, human relations commission, clergy, and weed & seed programs. This resulted in positive programming and relationships for the healing process in the City of Shreveport. David continues to work many other assignments and interventions for the Department of Justice within the Southwest Region.

 

David was call upon by Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr. Presiding Prelate of the Seventh Christian Methodist Episcopal District, former President of the National Council of Churches, USA, and current member of the Presidium of the World Methodist Council to direct the planning and development of the Louisiana Region Project Renaissance (LRPR) on the 80 acre site of the former CME Homer Colored College, where Booker T. Washington once taught in the 1800’s.  The LRPR Project is a $100,000,000 rural economic development program in the funding process. The LRPR will contain a Power Academy, Brick Making Plant, Convention Center, and a Village for the elderly.

 

David is the primary liaison for the LRPR working with Fannie Mae, Bank of America, and AFL-CIO’s Housing Investment Trust to fund phase one of the project.

 

Proactive Approaches to Community Supervision continues to make innovative change to re-integration of youth and adult offenders back into communities.  David believes that re-entry starts when the offender first comes into the system at assessment. The offender must start the road back at that point with programs to include educational, vocational, substance abuse, life skills, counseling, and spiritual guidance from a comprehensive program. The cost of this programming is 1/10 of the cost to keep the repeat offender process in place.  It costs an average of $30,000 per year to keep one offender in the system for an average stay of 10 years totaling $300,000. The programming advised by PACS would only cost $50,000 per offender to ensure they don’t continue the path of crime, but become contributors to the tax system as an employee and homeowner. The next step is to produce college curriculums and texts of the PACS Programs.

 

As a parole officer for the State of Texas, David’s caseload produced a 92% discharge rate, of that 92%, 80% did not re-offend.  He advocates that practical and sensible programming can make a difference.