Reentry Presentations

Two area reentry collaborations made presentations to the Champaign County Board this month. Below is video and other material from those presentations and some additional information about both from an earlier Reentry Council post.

First, the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission's new Young Adult Reentry Program's full video presentation to the board is available here. The slides are available on the County website here. One slide highlighted the collaborative nature of such programs with public and private entities:

The Champaign County Reentry Council also had a presentation (video link here and text of that report is on the County website here (page of 7 of the packet and page 10 of the PDF file). The Reentry Council is also a collaborative group of government, public and private organizations. Here's a list of their members:

The constituencies with voting representation on the Council are the Champaign County Board, the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office, the Champaign County Mental Health Board, the State's Attorney's Office, the Judiciary, the County Jail, Champaign County Health Care Consumers, Champaign County Probation, U.S. Probation, Rosecrance Central Illinois, the Champaign County Continuum of Care, Champaign County Housing Authority, Champaign County Regional Planning Commission, FirstFollowers, Ann's House, GROW, State of Illinois Department of Corrections Parole, TASC, a law enforcement representative, a liaison from the Crisis Intervention Team Steering Committee, and a designated Citizen Representative.

The YARP representatives also talked with the Reentry Council recently, so there is some related information about both and their presentations in my last post on the Reentry Council. Here are the relevant excerpts:

First off, there were some helpful informational guides and flyer about local reentry resources. The first is for people interested in more information about participating in the new Young Adult Reentry Program getting started by the Regional Planning Commission: YARP Participant Handbook. The second is a local resource flyer for people needing services upon reentry to the community from the criminal justice system. The third is a Reentry and Resource Guide and Workbook from Rosecrance for people reentering. It provides step by step information for some critical starting issues, such as obtaining a valid ID (no easy task when the prison issue ID isn't accepted):

  

There will also be a presentation of the Reentry Council's mid-annual report to the Champaign County Board this Tuesday at 6:30pm at their Committee of the Whole meeting. The text of that report is on the County website here (page of 7 of the packet and page 10 of the PDF file). I'll post a link of the video presentation when it's available. These presentations, like this one last year, help explain the data and charts involved in reentry collaboration, which can be heavy on jargon and abbreviations, even to those on the council. For the reader's sake, I'm highlighting probably the key bit from the conclusion:

It remains the view of the Reentry Council that more resources are needed in Champaign County to better support the successful transition of citizens returning here from incarceration. With recent leadership changes at the Champaign County Housing Authority, it appears that housing options, perhaps the most critical need faced, for the reentry population, will be increased.

As reentry case management is a vital component of success for all persons returning from incarceration, willing to engage in supportive services - particularly those with behavioral health needs, it is the hope of the Council that all supportive resources will become sustainable. On-going, reliable support for releasing individuals will offer the best opportunity to formerly-incarcerated people to establish productive lives that will serve the betterment of themselves, their families, and the Champaign County community

Although the data is more recent, this language is the same as the council report last summer and remains true (That July 2018 report is available here on page 14 of the agenda packet PDF (page 9 on the printed version). The difficulties and hurdles for people reentering are multi-layered and intertwined. It's complicated for those trying to help people navigate the system to meet their basic needs, let alone the people going through it themselves.

The recent updates on the Reentry Council are available in this last post here. More updates soon as the Reentry Council meets at the beginning of April.