The Restorative Community Coalition has been in business since 2006 doing reentry, restorative justice, behavioral health mentoring, coaching, and then we started doing prevention, intervention, and now justice system interception.
As we developed experience working with families…we recognized the problem is far more than personal, it is economic, and systemic. Once arrested, people experience the traumatic shock that comes when a bail bond is issued and they become a “financial commodity of the government corporation” (FCGC). The ripple effects compound…so we adapted to help. Here is a brief look at the programs we have been developing:
Our Specialized 2020 Programs: DIRECT SERVICES
The foundational work of the Coalition has always been direct services – to work directly with people who are arrested now, or who are dealing with an arrest in their family, or in the aftermath of an arrest, incarceration and with reentry. This means we have been working with the whole family to help them deal with the traumatic impacts on families, employers, and everyone involved. We have learned many things…primarily that the sooner we can help people in the family or personal distress cycles – at prevention, intervention, or conflict cycles the faster people heal, and the less likely they are to get arrested or go to jail in the first place.
This means meeting them where they are – we write letters and do work over the phone with people in jail or prison, we meet people in the street when they are dealing with conflict, we meet in public places where they feel safe, we host monthly meetings where they can come talk with others, and we do appointments where we do personal coaching with them about the situation they are in.
Over the years, we have identified five different kinds of services people need, and we have developed tools to help us serve them better. The following are the five types of support we offer, depending on the resources we have available.
We have asked our County Executive to help our Coalition do a massive Whatcom County “People’s Empowerment Project” – (PEP). That project includes these five emergency intervention programs for the people.
1) EMOTIONAL TRAUMA INTERCEPTION
Help people adapt to and manage their personal, social service and justice system involved life during this time of trial through reconciliation. They need help organizing and scheduling an expanded array of evaluations, doctor’s appointments, court assignments, family meetings, safe housing, and more.
Use specialized emotional first aid tools to do an early emotional impact intervention to stop the acceleration of deep, compound trauma caused by accelerating feelings of guilt, blame, shame, grief, fear often followed by misdirected anger. Fully adaptive, our ETIP tools can be learned and used any time – at the scene, at the point of arrest, with families, or in conjunction with immediate release on personal recognizance, with an Electronic Home Monitoring program, during work release, or in a clean and sober housing facility.
2) CASE MANAGERS
Help people adapt to and manage their personal, social service and justice system involved life during this time of trial through reconciliation. They need help organizing and scheduling an expanded array of evaluations, doctor’s appointments, court assignments, family meetings, safe housing, and more.
3) COURT NAVIGATORS
Use a checklist of tools and scheduling methods to help people successfully navigate the court processes and the complex relationships with the justice system so they can successfully meet and fulfill the obligations of the unfamiliar testing, evaluations and extra activities that suddenly show up in a person’s life.
4) RESTORATIVE JUSTICE MENTORS & COACHING
Work with individuals and family to adjust to the deep life changes that come with incarceration trauma, conflict resolution issues, victim impact issues, family and employment disruption. They may need safe housing, relationships training, community living skills, adaptive social context help from peers who have ‘been there’. Our Self-Empowerment Services mentoring program starts with a series of sessions called Negative Self Talk Awareness, Anger Understanding, Learned Behavior, Conscious Communication, Relationships and Commitments, Parenting, Decision-Making, Societal Conditioning. Helping people reintegrate into the work force, their family and society.
5) JOB RESKILLING AND ENTERPRISE COACHING
After an arrest the entire world of employment turns upside down, and entire families find themselves displaced, because referral and support networks often disappear, employment opportunities evaporate, costs send the family into poverty, and the ability to get work, retain work, and even to do work often fails. People lose licenses, credentials and recommendations. Even if they are not convicted, the reputation is ruined and it disorients and displaces families.
After time spent inside, even more trauma is experienced, their world has moved on, technology changes, jobs market is completely different. They need help adjusting to having a record, how to talk about their time inside, and how to relate to the community. More, they often need to do complete work recovery and job skills replacement, so they need employment coaching. Often the only option is starting their own business, and they need help doing this too, for it is completely undiscovered territory and there is no funding for them. So they must learn to work in cooperatives, and sometimes those options are also limited.