SAFER FOUNDATION (IL AND IA)

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Program Description
The Safer Foundation was established in 1972 by two former priests who received a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to provide vocational training to inmates in an effort to help them enter unions and private industry after release. They leveraged this financial support into an opportunity to develop a nonprofit organization focused on preparing former prisoners to become productive law-abiding citizens after their release from prison or jail. The focus of the Safer Foundation has remained virtually unchanged: to prepare former offenders for the world of work by helping them find and keep meaningful employment through a full range of employment services. Safer also provides clients with the additional services they often need to be ready for employment such as housing, substance abuse treatment, education, and life skills.

One of the largest community-based providers of employment services for former prisoners in the country, Safer has programs in six locations in Illinois and Iowa. It runs two secured residential sites: The PACE (Programmed Activities for Correctional Education) Institute is a private school in the Cook County Jail, which provides inmates with basic skills classes, literacy tutoring, and life skills training. The other residential site is the Crossroads Community Correctional Center in Chicago, a work-release program Safer runs for the Illinois Department of Corrections. Walk-in post-release services are provided at two locations in Chicago; an office in Rock Island, Illinois; and an office in Davenport, Iowa. Each of these locations provides intake and assessment for the full spectrum of Safer support services, job referral, and follow-up. Safer has deliberately defined its target population broadly to include a wide range of former offenders: juvenile and adult probationers, parolees, community corrections residents, and people in the county jail are all eligible for Safer services.

Recruitment has never been an issue for Safer; most clients come to the program by word of mouth based on the reputation of the staff and services. Intake staff complete an assessment on every client and develop a plan for how the person can make the best use of the resources Safer offers. The primary educational course offered by Safer is a six-week basic skills program in which they learn the fundamental skills needed to find and keep a job. All Safer courses are based on a peer-learning model, developed by the organization, in which students work in groups of three to five people supervised by a staff facilitator. This approach seems to cut down on disruptive behavior and takes positive advantage of the tendency for clients to be easily swayed by peer influences in the classroom. It also promotes self-esteem as each member of the group plays an important part in contributing to the learning process. During and after the course, employment specialists work with the clients to find jobs. Special case managers, called lifeguards, provide follow-up with clients for one year to help with various problems such as childcare, transportation, substance abuse treatment, and other issues.

Safer reports that it takes employment specialists about three weeks to place clients in a job. One reason they report being so successful is that the organization has developed good relationships with employers and has a reputation for preparing their clients well for employment. A 1996 survey of employers found that the majority reported little or no difference between job candidates referred by Safer and candidates who came to them by traditional means.

Starting in 1996, Safer also developed a more Education & Employment and Reentry: Sample Programs Outside the Walls: A National Snapshot of Community-based Prisoner Reentry Programs 24 strict definition of a successful placement. They moved from defining a placement success as a client who remained on the job for five days to remaining on the job for 30 days.

Program Goals
Safer strives to reduce recidivism by offering a full spectrum of services, including job readiness and placement, so that former offenders can become productive, effective, law-abiding members of the community.

Networking, Partnering & Collaboration
Safer Foundation has developed a successful partnership with the Illinois Department of Corrections that has grown since 1972. State parole officers and county probation officers rely on the services provided by Safer to improve the chances that their clients will remain crime free. Safer also collaborates with a wide range of business and service providers.

Outcomes
Since 1972, Safer has placed over 40,000 clients in jobs. A 1996 evaluation found that 59 percent of Safer clients placed in jobs that year remained in the job for 30 days. The evaluation also found that these clients were also more likely to remain employed and crime free up to a year after release.

 Additional Reading

• Peter Finn. June 1998. "Chicago’s Safer Foundation: A Road Back for Ex-Offenders." Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, NCJ 167575. Available at http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles/167575.pdf.

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