In the field of re-entry services, surrounding justice-involved individuals with a supportive community is paramount. One of the first things I noticed when I joined Concordance was the fellowship among our participants and their families, team members, community partners, and our supporters.
Concordance provides integrated and personalized services to every participant and supports them throughout and after their time in our program. The solidarity among our participants and team members is truly inspiring. At our St. Louis Center, we have created an inclusive environment where participants and team members start and end each day together in Circle. This is a time for everyone to take a moment and acknowledge the stressors in their lives, voice goals or intentions for the day, and share successes or opportunities for trying something different tomorrow. Participants and team members work together in groups and one-on-one sessions to support one another in gaining the tools needed to be successful in achieving their goals.
Support from loved ones is one of the biggest determinants for success among justice-involved individuals throughout their re-entry journey. Concordance conducts outreach to participants’ trusted contacts when they are in the pre-release phase of our program and provides information on the Concordance program and what they can expect as supporters. Trusted contacts can include family members or an individual or individuals that a participant identifies as their primary support system. We understand how critical the reunification with loved ones is in our participant’s healing journey. We try to foster this by inviting participants and their trusted contacts to Concordance for special events, like our monthly Family Suppers. Each month Concordance hosts our participants, their loved ones, and team members to enjoy a meal, join in fellowship, acknowledge participants’ successes, and gain a deeper understanding of the skills and tools their loved ones are learning at Concordance.
Our community partners are also an integral part of our holistic model. They include Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Housing Property Management Companies, Legal Services, and more. We would not be able to provide the breadth of assistance and services to our participants without our partners. Quality affordable healthcare is critical in ensuring participants receive needed medications, treatments, and preventative care. Connecting participants to medical providers upon their release is critical to treating the participant holistically, and it increases the likelihood the participant will continue to see these established providers long after they complete the Concordance program. Once participants have reached the full-time employment phase of our program, our housing partners provide safe, affordable, quality housing options for participants. The legal fellows from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner work with participants both pre- and post-release to address and clear any outstanding legal issues for participants.
As we head into the holiday season we are thankful for and reminded that it is because of our participants, their trusted contacts, Concordance team members, community partners, and supporters that we are able to create and maintain a sense of community. Each integral entity does its part to create an environment that allows our participants the opportunity to move forward and live joyful, abundant, and purposeful lives.