NCJ Number
224916
Date Published
December 2008
Length
65 pages
Annotation
This guide presents goals and recommendations which offer strategies for States to build networks with faith-based and community organizations, simplify pathways to funding support, recognize and understand distinct organizational cultures, tailor responses to the populations who will be served by reentry services, and ensure accountability that will help sustain and improve reentry initiatives.
Abstract
Faith-based and community organizations can supply critical services to people released from prisons and jails. Staff and volunteers at these organizations have also been successful at fostering positive and lasting relationships with people released from prisons and jails. However, garnering long-term partnerships between faith-based and community organizations and government systems that may not have experience working together can be a formidable challenge. State policymakers have had little guidance on how to foster and sustain these important relationships. This guide, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, is written to help policymakers and their potential partners make better use of existing community resources and increase their capacity to help people released succeed in the community. The guide offers practical recommendations for administrators of corrections and community corrections agencies, legislators, and others interested in how their State can improve reentry, reduce recidivism, and build or improve collaborations with community-based service providers. Highlighted throughout the guide are actions that faith-based and community organizations can take that complement State efforts to improve collaboration. The guide provides strategies to address five areas in which governments often encounter obstacles to collaboration; these include: networks, funding, distinct organizational cultures, target population, and accountability. Appendix A and B, and 10 notes