A local organization is asking the public’s help in its efforts to assist former convicts get back on their feet.

Bob Carlough, one of the three founding members of DovCar Renaissance and Empower Ministry Inc., said he and partners Rick Dove and Terry Drummer have started the three-month program to provide homes for those recently released from prison.

“A lot of times the felon, after leaving prison, has no place to go,” Carlough said. “They can’t get a job. They can’t get housing because of their circumstances.

“Many of them come from really nonexistent families. I mean, you can imagine a lot of them are just scattered and a lot of them also, the families just refuse to deal with them anymore.”

Carlough said he and his partners have applied for nonprofit status and the group has collected beds and other types of furniture, but still is in need of cookware and other items.

“If anybody wants to call or e-mail, all they have to do is tell us what to take and we’ll come and get it,” Carlough said.

He said they got the idea while at an Atlanta Intown Community Project meeting.

While there, they met Fred Anderson, an ex-felon and founder of the Felons Adjusting to Life Again program, who told them about the need for housing.

They then decided to start their own organization and use some real estate investment properties they were having trouble renting.

“We’ve used [Anderson’s] construction company to clean up, repaint, recarpet and do small odds and ends around these two houses to get them in shape, get them ready for residents, and that’s about where we stand right now,” Carlough said.

“We’re just about ready to get these up and running with some residents.”

He declined to say where exactly in the county the homes are located, but said he doesn’t think they will cause much concern.

Carlough explained that the residents who eventually live in the homes will be in regular contact with their probation officers and will receive help in getting jobs and returning to life outside of prison.