| The Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign offers media tools and resources to support informed discussion, decision making, and action about solution-based reentry programs that foster public safety and support healthy communities. We encourage you to review the diverse materials and consider how you may be able to use them effectively. |
| The Reentry National Media Outreach Campaign acts as a catalyst to encourage solution-based reentry activities. Review this chronicle of public television and community events/actions to gain ideas on what may work in your arena. |
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FAMILYWORKS (NY)
Program Description The Osborne Association, founded in 1931, provides a broad range of mental health, physical health and substance abuse treatment, education, and vocational services to more than 6,500 prisoners, former prisoners, and their families annually. Osborne provides services in community sites in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and at the organization's headquarters in Long Island City (Queens); in New York City jails and courts; and New York State prisons. Staff of the Osborne Association reflect the populations they serve: more than 80 percent are people of color, and many are former prisoners, people in recovery, and people living with HIV/AIDS. FamilyWorks, a pioneering program created in 1987, provides a spectrum of services that lay the groundwork for improved family relationships while a father is still incarcerated. As the father prepares to leave prison, the services provided ease the transition for the entire family. The program offers parenting courses and one-on-one counseling for imprisoned fathers in three New York State prisons while also reaching out to family members to prepare them for the return of their family member. To help keep children connected to an incarcerated parent during the prison term, Osborne operates Children's Centers, quiet spaces for incarcerated parents and their children to spend time together, in two New York State prison facilities. FamilyWorks also provides family-centered discharge planning services for imprisoned parents and their families to help families reconnect, negotiate their new or changing roles, and support one another toward a successful transition from prison to home. After release, prisoners and their families receive ongoing family case management at Osborne's community-based Family Resource Center . These services integrate individual and family counseling and referrals to job placement and other services.
Program Goals Networking, Partnering & Collaboration Outcomes FamilyWorks monitors progress toward specific program-related performance measures. For instance, among clients who have completed a service plan with a FamilyWorks caseworker, 74 percent initiated action toward achieving the goals set forth in those plans (e.g., found employment or housing or continued to participate in counseling sessions). The FamilyWorks' prison-based program component (parenting classes, counseling, use of Children's Centers) was recently evaluated by Kim Cattat of the State University of New York at Buffalo and Dina Rose of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Results of the evaluation will be available on the Osborne Association's web site. |
