Initiatives
Housing
RRP seeks to provide financial support to participants to secure transitional housing, including subsidizing security deposits, providing rental assistance, and developing properties to serve as transitional housing for participants during the first 18 months of their reentry.
Participants struggle to secure housing upon their release given the low wages they are initially able to earn and the housing shortage in Essex County. As a result, they often end up sleeping on couches, in shelters, or even voluntarily returning to incarceration in a halfway house in order to have a place to stay. Even when participants are able to stay with family or friends, they are often subject to financial and social pressure, provoking them to return to criminal activity.
Providing financial support or a group home removes a significant stressor and improves participants’ ability to engage with mental health and other supportive services. It enables participants to build savings and establishing long-term employment before securing stable housing.
Mental Health
RRP has developed a ten-month intensive and comprehensive cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program, based on a model created by Drexel University, to address patterns of thinking and problem solving that undermine a participants’ ability to reintegrate into their families, maintain employment and otherwise navigate their communities without recidivating.
This CBT program addresses thinking styles and blind spots, self-awareness and self-control, communication with family members and employers, problem solving and goal setting through group meetings and homework assignments facilitated by social workers.
By providing participants with the skills and self-awareness to navigate the challenges of reentry and daily life, the CBT program enables participants to benefit from the other supportive services provided in reentry court and to maintain the advances they make in education, employment and in relationships with their families.
Job Training and Education
RRP provides scholarships and stipends to help participants complete training and education programs, in order to significantly enhance participants’ future employment prospects.
These training programs range from Commercial Driver’s License training to HVAC certifications and trade union training programs to community college, associates and bachelors’ degrees. Absent financial support, participants would be unable to support themselves during the training and education programs, even while maintaining part-time employment.
After completing the training and education programs, participants are able to transition from unstable, low-wage employment to well-paid careers that offer benefits and job security.