Community Partnerships: About the Project
The Issue
Leaders in the federal government have promoted community and faith-based organizations as critical partners in any effort to provide integrated support to people who are incarcerated or have been recently released from prisons and jails. Administrators and staff of community and faith-based organizations, as well as the volunteers they marshal, have a long history of outreach and service to people who are incarcerated or who have returned to the community after leaving prisons or jails. Leveraging and complementing the resources they offer can have a significant impact on public safety, public spending, and the health of communities.
State government officials seeking to establish and support partnerships between their department of correction and myriad community and faith-based organizations, however, continue to encounter numerous challenges. For their part, leaders of community and faith-based organizations often feel that the potential value they offer goes unrealized.
The Response
The Council of State Governments Justice Center is developing several products to help state government officials and community and faith-based organization leaders improve collaboration.
- Policy guide: In creating the policy guide, the Justice Center project team is working with diverse constituencies—community and faith-based representatives, nonprofit organization leaders, and state government officials, including corrections administrators—to ensure the product will have value for those working in the field. This guide will
- highlight real, everyday obstacles that impede joint efforts between state agencies and community and faith-based organizations willing to serve people incarcerated or recently released from prisons or jails;
- provide practical recommendations that policymakers in state and local government, as well as leaders of these organizations, can implement to coordinate their roles on prisoner reentry initiatives; and
- identify policies and programs that illustrate how particular state governments and communities have carried out these recommendations.
Following the dissemination of the policy guide, the center staff plans to provide the following:
- Interactive Website: The website will enable users to assess whether their state provides an environment conducive to partnerships between state government and community and faith-based organizations
- Targeted Technical Assistance: Assistance will be provided to particular states where policymakers are interested in working with community and faith-based organizations to tailor the policy guide to their state
Contact:
Jamie Yoon
Research Associate
Council of State Governments Justice Center
jyoon@csg.org
tel: (212) 482-2320
fax: (212) 482-2344