The Santa Clara County Faith Reentry Collaborative is a network of multi-faith religious institutions, community organizations, and volunteers established to provide transitional services to newly released inmates. We offer hope, compassion, forgiveness, trust, and accountability together with immediate and long-term support to individuals and their families as they return to the community from incarceration.
The Function of Faith in Reentry
Recent studies on the impact of faith in reentry have shown that faith-based approaches to reentry bring added value in the treatment of substance abuse, safe and affordable housing, strong social and family support, education, and employment.
Faith-based organizations offer strong supportive and welcoming environments, and provide assistance that draws upon community values, culture and faith traditions. They promote a change of heart, transforming individuals from the inside out, restoring them to a better life.
Our Story
In late 2011 the Santa Clara County
Behavioral Health Services Department began implementing its Mental Health
Services Act (MHSA)-funded Innovation 06 project to create an interfaith
reentry collaborative and faith-based resource centers to support the reentry
and recovery of individuals involved in the criminal justice system in Santa
Clara County.
Innovation 06
included two main activities. The first
activity was the formation of the Faith Reentry Collaborative. The Faith
Reentry Collaborative was a steering committee charged with engaging the faith
community of Santa Clara County, developing the mission and vision of the
project, developing work plans in service-specific subcommittees, and
overseeing those work plans. The second activity was the piloting of three
multi-agency, faith-based resource centers to facilitate service coordination
to individuals reentering the community from jail.
Santa Clara County
Behavioral Health Services Department’s MHSA funds also supported an evaluation
of Innovation 06, conducted by Resource Development Associates (RDA). The
Innovation 06 evaluation specifically sought to assess whether the Faith
Reentry Collaborative increased the capacity of the faith community to serve
criminal justice system-involved individuals who are returning to the
community, and whether the Collaborative’s efforts contributed to successful
reentry.