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Tag: trust

  • Does faith community reintegration work for every offender?

    Recently a new friend asked me what I did for a living.

    I began to tell him about the vital work of community reintegration. His response? “Good luck with that!”

    Frankly, I wasn’t surprised—and perhaps you’ve had similar responses as well.

    Hardly a week goes by without national or provincial news about a high-profile offender who has reoffended. Such headlines persuade us there is no hope for a healthy reintegration experience.

    Thankfully, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

    While the work of reintegration can be very complex, in general, the high-profile cases that capture news headlines are more often than not a result of an offender leaving a correctional institution with no meaningful, comprehensive support.

    We know that healthy reintegration becomes possible when we can help offenders into the ‘relational resource centre’ of their church or faith community.

    When healthy relationships of trust are established and modelled, when accountability is nurtured, and when resources such as employment, therapy, addiction treatment and housing are made available, a parolee begins to gain one of the invaluable qualities of life: hope.

    And what we are discovering is, when a parolee does re-offend, the re-offence is typically less severe than previous offences. Further, that situation becomes an opportunity to focus our relationships and resources more closely on and around the specific challenges that parolee is wrestling with.

    Does faith community reintegration work for every offender?

    Full disclosure: yes . . . and no.

    Yes, because:

    Every dimension of support that ‘we’ (the Better Life Team and all the amazing churches and faith communities, mentors, and volunteers) can offer impacts a parolee’s life for the better, and often for eternity.

    Just this spring, LS entered parole. Because of the nature of his crime, he couldn’t go back to his former occupation. But LS was willing to begin again at the bottom. He recognized his need for the support of his church community.

    Recently, a Better Life Team member and I met with LS. He shared examples of his growing faith and his desire to serve in his church in the area God has gifted him (to give back).

    He spoke about Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality, an excellent book by Dr. Henry Cloud that LS’s Better Life reintegration partner had given him before he was released on parole, and how he is applying its principles in his life each day.

    He talked about how, while humbly being willing to ‘begin at the bottom,’ he was now being given the opportunity to provide site management and the promise of greater advancement in the future in his new field.

    The story of LS’s life is being written, or perhaps ‘rewritten,’ in such a redemptive way.

    Another recent example is CM.

    On the day of CM’s release, the Better Life reintegration partner, who had been supporting him while he was still inside, and I accompanied him to a church within a close distance from his halfway home.

    CM told the pastor his story and the pastor welcomed CM into his community and talked with him about the ways that he could experience meaningful relationships and support at the church. A pathway for healthy reintegration was created for CM to travel on.


    So, where does the ‘No’ come in? When doesn’t faith community reintegration work?

    Really, the only time faith community reintegration can’t ‘work’ is when there’s no church or faith community available to reintegrate the individual into.

    And that, in a nutshell, is the challenge.

    Our hope, our prayer, and our commitment as Better Life is to have trained, equipped and supported churches and faith communities throughout the Pacific Region that are ready to welcome and support a parolee through their community reintegration.

    We are continually meeting with and providing training for churches and faith communities, but we need so many more.

    And, certainly for Christians, our faith compels us directly from the words of Jesus to invest in the ‘least of these.’ (Matthew 25)

    On this Giving Tuesday*, I would like to ask you to consider responding in two ways:

    • First, are you a part of a church or faith community that Better Life could meet with and help train and resource as a welcoming and supportive community for healthy reintegration? Email adam.betterlife@gmail.com to start the conversation.
    • Second, will you consider being a financial supporter of Better Life through regular giving or a one-time gift?

    Your financial contribution will enable Better Life to continue to provide training, resourcing and support to church and faith communities so that their doors are opened and their mentors and volunteers are prepared to provide a life-changing experience for a parolee.

    With thanks,

    Adam Wiggins

    Executive Director

    *”GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world. GivingTuesday was founded in 2013 in Canada by CanadaHelps.org, GIV3 and several other founding partners.”—from GivingTuesday.org

  • The Faith Community: FCRPs Part 3

    (This is Part 3 of a series on Faith Community Reintegration. Read Part 1 and Part 2.)

    Better Life has a clear and intentional pathway for supporting an offender in their desire to experience healthy reintegration.

    While, sadly, there are no silver bullets when it comes to reintegration, there are game-changers.

    Relationship is vital.

    Many men and women coming out of Corrections institutions—often because of the culture they experience within the prisons—are asking the question, “who can I trust?”

    The answer is found in communities of people whose faith leads them to be:

    • welcoming to marginalized people
    • relationally authentic (i.e., “my faith leads me to realize I don’t have my life together”)
    • seeking to live their lives by a consistent expression of values inspired by their faith

    In so many respects, this is why faith community reintegration can have such a far-reaching impact on lowering recidivism.

    Better Life is committed to helping individuals from all faiths to connect with their faith communities, as per the terms of our contract with Corrections Canada as a Faith Community Reintegration Project (FCRP). While our organization is comprised of individuals who are followers of Jesus, we engage with offenders of all faith backgrounds and commit to exemplifying the person of Jesus through everything we do, including supporting offenders to connect with their chosen faith communities.

    We are constantly reaching out to faith community leaders to communicate what we do and the difference that a faith community can have in helping a parolee experience a healthy reintegration.

    Better Life’s commitment is to be working with faith communities who believe their faith leads them to invest in the support and care of men and women on parole.

    To be clear, Better Life’s practice is not to ask faith communities to adopt a “Better Life reintegration program.”

    Instead, we engage with faith communities around the essential elements of healthy reintegration they may already have and could further develop within their community and offer our support as a resource centre.

    Some of these essential elements include:

    Guardrails

    Another name for this is Boundaries.

    What do a faith community’s members need to know to provide healthy relationships and safety—both for individuals on parole, but also for the rest of their community?

    Healthy guardrails protect everyone and ensure the best outcomes possible.


    (Next month we’ll look at what specific Guardrails are needed.)

    Growth

    In the context of a Christian faith community or church we might call this discipleship.

    What pathway can the community lead an offender on to help them continue to grow and develop and to experience a healthy integration into the community?

    This will look somewhat different for different faith communities, but the common and valuable essentials are expressed through relationship:

    • Who are the committed individuals who are going to support the parolee?
    • What are they going to engage around that will continue to help the parolee to grow and develop?
    • Do they understand the unique challenges a parolee faces?

    Things that many of us take for granted can be a significant challenges for a parolee.

    These include housing (following the halfway house), employment, groceries, counselling for trauma, and in some cases, addiction.

    In the November newsletter, we will provide one possible outline for a small group structure that helps individuals grow in their faith and development.

    Essentially, Better Life values faith communities as relational resource centres. Within the faith community is every resource a parolee needs to continue to move forward. And the faith community makes an invaluable contribution to a parolee’s experience and in the lowering of the recidivism rate.

    Faith Community reintegration is a game-changer and a life-changer for everyone involved.

    This is not limited to the offenders. Involved members of the faith communities often remark that they receive more through supporting offenders than they give, while the community at large benefits as incidents of crime and violence are reduced.

    Better Life is developing a “toolbox” that it will offer for training purposes at faith communities, and also plans to make available on our website in the coming months.

    If you have questions about volunteering and how to involve your faith community in providing support for an individual’s reintegration, please don’t hesitate to contact our General Director, Adam Wiggins, at adam.betterlife@gmail.com.