Our Programs
Family ReEntry’s programs help men, women and youth, whose lives or family members are involved in the criminal justice system, find a way out. Our programs are located in Bridgeport, Stamford and Norwalk, as well as in three prisons in Niantic and Cheshire.
Our programs fall in one of three categories along the continuum of services needed by our clients:
- Community Justice Intervention Services
- Prisoner Reentry Initiatives
- Children, Youth, & Family Programs
Program Enrollment
Most of our program participants are referred by state agencies such as the Department of Correction, Probation and/or Parole, area schools, and/or Department of Children and Families. Some programs accept direct referrals. For more information, see the "Contact Us" section.
______________________________________________________________
Program Descriptions
Community Justice Intervention Services
Domestic Violence Intervention Programs work toward eliminating physical and psychological violence in the relationships and families. The programs, which are four levels of intensity, are directly tied to the Statewide efforts to combat family violence. Program Coordinators also participate with local Domestic Violence Task Forces. and the regional Domestic Violence Courts. The four program levels offered are:
- EVOLVE: A 26 week, 52 session skills building, and culturally-competent, psycho-educational curriculum-based intervention for male offenders with female victims. EVOLVE is characterized by consistent judicial oversight with rapid response to violations, extensive specialized victim advocacy resources, and a graduated range of sanctions. The program is designed to address the most serious and highest risk cases.
- Integrated Family Violence Services: A CT Department of Children and Families program in partnership with the Center for Women and Families. This multi-agency collaborative program provides intensive clinical and case management services for carefully selected families. The primary services focus on all family members including the children, the parent who is the survivor of domestic violence, and the abuser. Interventions for the abuser are provided by Family ReEntry. The well-being of the children and the safety of the victim are always paramount.
Prisoner Reentry Initiatives
Fresh Start Community ReEntry Program is an innovative, research-based nonresidential model which results in the successful reintegration of formerly-incarcerated-persons into their families and communities. Yale University research has consistently observed a 50% to 54% reduction in the rate of recidivism for program participants. This holistic approach engages and prepares prisoners prior to release, utilizes successful ex-offenders as leaders, role-models, and mentors, builds collaborations with stakeholders, and creates positive pro-social networks in the community. The results are: productive, taxpaying citizens, stronger families and communities, increased public safety, reduced costs to taxpayers, and improved quality of life in the region and across the state. Gender-specific programming is provided for women in collaboration with our partner agency, The Center for Women and Families of Eastern Fairfield County. Learn More about Fresh Start's Groundbreaking Approach to Prison ReEntry.
Fresh Start Enterprise House is an innovative demonstration project designed to create sustainable community-based opportunities for successful reentry. Success is achieved by combining entrepreneurial employment and training, providing supportive services, interagency collaboration, and creating a community driven to succeed. Enterprise House creates an environment with high expectations for success and standards of behavior coupled with meaningful supports from role models, mentors, and the community. Enterprise House is a peer driven, professionally supported, positive pro-social environment that shifts the formerly incarcerated person from “incarceration dependence to community integration and self-sufficiency”.
Fresh Start Enterprises, LLC is a training and employment social enterprise for formally-incarcerated-persons. Fresh Start Enterprises creates employment opportunities that go well beyond a paycheck by using work as a powerful medium for initiating and sustaining positive change. The work environment creates positive support systems where trainees and employees gain marketable work skills, valuable experience, create supportive peer relationships, learn and practice social skills, build self-confidence and self-esteem, and begin to mentor each other through encouragement of positive behavior, challenging negative attitudes, and celebrating personal and business success. Fresh Start Enterprises creates jobs – the employees pay taxes, repay child support arrearages, and become responsible members of their families and productive citizens in their communities. In these ways “the power of work is truly realized” in the many benefits to the ex-offenders, their families, and their communities.
The Bridgeport Region Behavioral Health Network is a behavioral health and substance abuse assessment and treatment program that serves Connecticut Department of Correction Parolees. The program’s licensed and certified professional staff provide the highest quality evidence-based mental and behavioral health and substance abuse interventions to a diverse population of clients with a wide range of needs. Ensuring psychological and relational health and adherence to a recovery and relapse prevention plan allows previously incarcerated persons a real chance to succeed; and improves the quality of life for the clients and their families.
Children, Youth, & Family Programs
The Champions Mentoring Program is a nationally recognized Bridgeport regional mentoring program serving children experiencing the incarceration of a parent or significant family member. The program initiated in 2003 and partially funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Family and Youth Services Bureau. The program’s collaborative partnership includes: The Governor’s Prevention Partnership and its division the Connecticut Mentoring Partnership, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Southeastern Connecticut, The Amachi Program, and regional mentoring collaborative groups. The Champions Program provides a range of supportive family services and activities that enhance and strengthen the assets of each family and self-esteem of each child. By engaging area businesses and community organizations in the program creates a “web of supportive relationships” for these children and their families. Over 2 million children in the U.S. are currently experiencing parental incarceration (by age 18 over 10 million children will experience parental incarceration), with all these children being 6 to 7 times more likely to be incarcerated in their lifetime, Champions is a critical part of the solution.
Transitions Mentoring Program for Youth in Prison is an in-prison program for young male and female inmates ages 15 to 23. Established in 2000, this program combines in-prison life skills training, counseling/support groups, reentry planning, and one-on-one in-prison mentoring. The professional staff provides the life skills and reentry components and recruit, train, and support the volunteer mentors throughout the mentoring relationship. As a result, when released to the community, youth are better prepared to succeed in employment, education, and relationships with family members, teachers, and employers.
The Beacon Program provides an array of mentoring, conflict resolution, anti-gang education, and Juvenile Review Board services focused on reducing the likelihood that youth at-risk will enter the revolving door of incarceration. One unique and critical aspect of the program is the selection and training of highly motivated adult ex-offenders from the Fresh Start Community Reentry Program to be mentors and role models for at-risk youth in their own community. The key to success and sustainably of this program is the community-based approach that utilizes ex-offenders in the process of changing the tragic development trajectory of youth in their communities and ending the intergenerational cycle of crime and incarceration.