Reentry and Community and Faith-Based Organizations

Community and faith-based organizations provide invaluable leadership, knowledge, and passion to reentry initiatives around the country. They provide critical reentry services in prisons and jails and have extensive networks to link people to resources that can help them reenter communities in positive ways. Collaborative partnerships between state and local government and community and faith-based organizations are key to a successful reentry initiative.

Key Resources

Reentry Partnerships: A Guide for States & Faith-Based and Community Organizations, Council of State Governments Justice Center (2008)
This guide provides recommendations to improve collaboration between government agencies and faith-based and community organizations.
Sustaining Grassroots Community-Based Programs: A Toolkit for Community- and Faith-Based Service Providers, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2008)
This toolkit is designed to help grassroots community and faith-based organizations develop their service delivery capacity. It addresses organizational assessment and readiness, effective marketing strategies, financial management, sustainability, and results-oriented evaluation.
Balancing Justice with Mercy: An Interfaith Guide for Creating Healing Communities, Progressive National Baptist Convention / The Annie E. Casey Foundation (2008)
This guide, developed for an interfaith audience in secular language, illuminates the Healing Communities model. This model seeks to engage congregations in restoration and healing people in their own congregations who have been affected by crime and incarceration.
Ready4Reentry: Prisoner Reentry Toolkit for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, U.S. Department of Labor (2006)
This toolkit, based on the Ready4Work model, is a promising practices guide for small- to medium-size faith-based and community organizations interested in starting or bolstering their reentry efforts.
Key Components for an Effective Reentry Program: A Guide to Matching National Service Programs with Weed and Seed and Other Citywide Initiatives on Prisoner Reentry, U.S. Department of Justice
This publication is designed as a reference for organizations and communities interested in developing or enhancing prisoner reentry programs. This information is geared toward community-based organizations and Weed and Seed sites using national service resources, specifically AmeriCorps*VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) members.