Social workers help ensure every person has resources and opportunities, and that work hasn’t stopped during the global COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, it’s adapted and increased because creative, passionate people have dedicated themselves to it.

Angelique Thomas, LMSW (SW ‘2016) is the only social worker on staff with the Innocence Project New Orleans (IPNO), a free-standing, non-profit law office with specialized full-time staff attorneys and investigators working to free innocent life-sentenced prisoners in Louisiana and Mississippi. Since 2001, they have freed or exonerated 36 individuals who combined have served over 830 years in prison.

IPNO also supports their released and exonerated clients to live well and fully in the world after leaving prison. That’s where Angelique comes in as the organization’s Client Services Specialist.

“Many of our clients are not eligible for the re-entry services provided by the system,” Angelique says. “We work with them to learn new skills, especially those related to technology, and secure housing and employment. We also work with their families.”

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