Louisiana Inspired is all about shining a light on people and organizations who are working toward solutions in Louisiana neighborhoods, communities, towns, cities and throughout the state — it's work that takes extra effort by special people, demonstrating the good stuff of the human spirit.
For the inaugural Inspirit Awards, we received nominations from across the state of people who are making a positive difference and improving their communities.
Webster says inspirit implies instilling life, energy, courage, or vigor into something.
We are pleased to announce the 2023 Inspirit Awards winners. In creative, conscientious, clever and industrious ways, these Louisianans are making the world a better place. These winners were selected from a field of nominations received from the general public. The nominations were reviewed by a newsroom panel who selected eight Inspirit Award winners.
Syrita Steib, founder of Operation Restoration, at her New Orleans office on Thursday, December 21, 2023. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
Syrita Steib was 19 years old when she was sentenced to 10 years in prison and $1.9 million in restitution. When she got out, she didn’t know her bra size, how to use a cellphone or the internet, or where she was going to live or work.
Today, she runs an organization with a $4.4 million operating budget that provides transitional housing, clothing, financial literacy classes, education access and other wraparound services to formerly incarcerated women. In 2022, Operation Restoration provided services to more than 1,100 women.
Ban the Box
After release from prison, Steib applied for admission to college and truthfully answered the question about her criminal history. The application was quickly denied. She applied again a year later, this time not checking the box about incarceration, and was admitted.
"You'd be surprised at how many guys come up and ask him life questions. It's awesome to listen to his responses. He's definitely wise. The interesting thing about him though is that he passes so much along to other people. So you know he'll be gone, but he's passed on so much to everybody that he'll still be here."
-- Tight end Nate Wozniak
That led her to help draft legislation and rally support for the "Ban the Box" initiative, which urges schools to remove questions about their criminal history from college applications. Louisiana became the first state to pass a law “banning the box” in 2017. Since then, Steib has supported campaigns in seven other states.
“This was a direct impediment for people accessing higher education,” she said.
Steib is also a founding member of Unlock Higher Ed Coalition, which advocated for the restoration of Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated students, among other efforts. And she partnered with Tulane University on the College-in-Prison program, which offers for-credit bachelor's degrees to women at Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women.
Syrita Steib, who founded Operation Restoration in 2016, stops in with her kids to greet instructors and participants of the program at the New Orleans Career Center in New Orleans, Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. Operation Restoration is a group that helps train formerly incarcerated women and family members effected by incarceration to become medical lab assistants. (Photo by Sophia Germer, NOLA.com, The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
Creating upward mobility
Most importantly to Steib, she created Operation Restoration’s Lab Assistant Training Program, an eight-week course that helps students become certified medical lab assistants. Steib is a graduate of LSU College of Sciences and was preparing for medical school before she started Operation Restoration.
“I wanted people to have a real chance at not just a job, but a career, and a career that had a lot of upward mobility,” she said.
According to a report from the White House, the unemployment rate for formerly incarcerated Black women is about 43%.
The first cohort of Lab Assistant program graduates. Steib said helping women find sustainable careers is her proudest achievement so far.
“We can support people with housing or clothing, but nothing has a multigenerational impact like educating someone and connecting them to a career,” Steib said.
More than 70 women have graduated from the lab assistant program so far, and 80% of them are licensed.
A clean slate
In 2021, President Donald Trump granted Steib a full pardon, including remission from her financial restitution. She could finally stop the payments toward the $1.9 million she had been making for more than 20 years.
“It’s like a life sentence you can never shake off,” Steib said. “They gave it to me at the age of 19 without even considering quality of life or my eventual ability to pay. Getting that removed was such a huge lift.”
A student picks out new clothes during an Operation Restoration school supply giveaway.
Now, Steib helps other women fill out clemency applications and educates them on the need to also apply for financial remission, and has traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with justice department officials.
Spreading the word through art and music
When not busy running education programs or working on public policy, Steib brings incarceration issues to the arts. She was a co-curator for “Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana,” an exhibit at the Newcomb Museum that paired artists with incarcerated women, and a similar exhibit on incarcerated children.
Steib is even working on an opera that will tell the stories of four incarcerated women that she hopes will open next year.
Also next year, Operation Restoration is moving into a larger space.
“We call it a home in the community,” Steib said. “And we couldn’t do it without the community. We really appreciate all the support.”