SaluteU

SaluteU is created in memory and honor of Umar “Salute” Muhammad. Prior to his untimely passing, Umar was a formerly incarcerated individual who subsequently utilized his experience with the criminal “justice” system to advocate on behalf of his community and other formerly incarcerated individuals. 

SaluteU is an all-encompassing program that assists individuals who were formerly incarcerated or engaging in activities likely to lead to incarceration with various services to help them engage and reenter into society with gainful employment, housing, medical care, education and more. Each participant’s experience is based on that participant’s particular needs. Every SaluteU graduate is required to become a mentor to a new participant. 

To assist SaluteU in recruiting participants, For The Struggle, Inc. (“FTS”) partners with local community members, community leaders and organizations, and Sheriff’s offices and District Attorneys’ Offices to prepare and execute criminal record expungement clinics in communities identified as most in need of such services. These communities are often overlooked as “dangerous,” “undesirable” or “incurable.” The purpose of the clinics is to help individuals with criminal records and reoccuring issues clear their “slate,” which leads to easier access to meaningful employment, housing, economic opportunity and more.

All expungement clinics will be held on an as-needed basis, with the first clinic scheduled to occur in Spring 2021. Each clinic will be led by members of each community, respectively, along with competent attorneys and community organizers working as volunteers or employees of FTS. FTS will achieve its goal of working in such communities by working with long-term and well-known members of said communities to organize participants in need of services.