BOURNE – From the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office: Wednesday the Michael English House, a partner at the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office’s Bridge Center, was awarded a game-changing, competitive Re-Entry Workforce Development grant from the Commonwealth Corporation and the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
The $213,830 Re-Entry Workforce Development Demonstration grant will provide one year of funding to support Skilled Purpose’s 12-week carpentry training, employer connection and support services for eligible individuals from the Barnstable County Correctional Facility preparing to return to the community and those recently released.
It’s the first time this re-entry grant has been given to a Cape & Islands organization.
The program was co-founded in 2024 by Vincent English, a Yarmouth native, who named the nonprofit after his brother Michael English who died of substance use disorder in 2017. In 2025, the Skilled Purpose program opened at the Sheriff’s Office’s Bridge Center in Barnstable Village. Classes are offered in two separate cohorts, one for those in recovery, and one for incarcerated people from the
Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office. “Our mission is to fill the gaps between reentry from jail and early stabilization from addiction to meaningful careers where people can earn a living wage in Barnstable County,” said Michael English House Program Manager Joe Thorpe. “It’s really a community mission and a deeply personal mission for us.”
The Michael English House’s purpose aligns with Sheriff Donna D. Buckley’s goal of helping people overcome the numerous obstacles to re-entry so that they do not cycle back into crime and incarceration. The Bridge Center provides connections to addiction treatment, mental health treatment, employment, and social services.
“We opened The Bridge Center to provide that continuum of care necessary for lasting reintegration,” said Sheriff Buckley. “Our common goal is to help those in recovery and those who are justice involved through that precarious re-entry space.”
All 21 students who have graduated since the first class started have secured employment. Another 16 students are currently enrolled.
“Seven years ago, I was in a jail cell,” said Vincent English. “Now I have a chance to have my lived experience translate into changing the course of somebody’s life. That’s always been my ultimate goal.”
