SAN ANTONIO FIGHTING BACK, INC. — YOUNG OFFENDERS REENTRY COALITION (TX)

Program Description
San Antonio Fighting Back (SAFB), created in 1989, is considered a coalition of San Antonio's civic leaders, city agencies, community-based organizations, and the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County. Generally, the coalition designs and implements holistic programming of substance abuse prevention, treatment, and aftercare services in the southeast area of San Antonio. SAFB has implemented eight key strategies through a wide variety of initiatives targeting people of every age, condition and culture across the community. These strategies are 1) collaborative problem solving through partnerships, 2) community mobilization, 3) capacity building through training and technical assistance, 4) increasing access to and utilization of substance abuse treatment, 5) implementing environmental and systems change through media and public policy advocacy, 6) implementing neighborhood-based public safety activities, 7) conducting economic development, and 8) revitalizing and restoring neighborhoods.

In 1997, data from the Community Epidemiology Work Group showed that Bexar County would be receiving an influx in former prisoners returning home within the year. No reentry programs, initiatives, or strategies were in place and 52 percent of the individuals would be returning to the Fighting Back target neighborhoods. In response, the Weed and Seed Coalition established a Young Offender Reentry Coalition to develop a reentry strategy to reduce relapse and recidivism and increase public safety and public health. Services are provided immediately after release from prison. This Coalition involved the courts, adult probation, and juvenile probation, which provided criminal justice supervision; faith-based providers, which provided intensive life skills training; treatment and mental health providers, which provided ongoing treatment; workforce contractors, which provided job training, development, and placement; and Nexus Recovery, which provided transitional housing.

Program Goals
The goal of the Young Offenders Reentry Coalition is to link critical components of the reentry process to reduce relapse and recidivism and increase public safety and public health.

Outcomes
According to SAFB, the Youth Offenders Reentry Coalition has served 240 persons to date; after three years, only 16 program participants were convicted of committing another crime within two years of completing the program.

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