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Community Treatment Programs For over twenty-five years, THE PROGRAM for Women and Families has addressed the needs of women offenders in the Lehigh Valley through its Community Treatment Programs. Today those programs include: the Transitional Residence Program, the Day Reporting Program, and P.A.C.T. (Parents and Children Together). In the adult versions of RESPECT and STOPLIFT, Community Treatment Programs meet the needs of adult populations at risk for HIV infection and those who have been convicted of shoplifting. Transitional Residence Program The Transitional Residence Program is available to homeless women transitioning out of the criminal justice system or who are at risk of criminal behavior, and their children. The program provides agency subsidized housing and supportive services in a seven-unit apartment building in center city Allentown for a period of 12 to 18 months. Founded in 1995 thanks to a major gift from the First Presbyterian Church of Allentown, the Transitional Residence Program initially offered only affordable apartment living. Since then it has grown into a comprehensive continuum of care for socially and economically disadvantaged homeless women as they strive to become self-sufficient, productive citizens and responsible mothers. Women accepted into the program must be referred by an established social service agency and then submit a formal application. Applicants must demonstrate they have made some effort towards positive lifestyle changes and must demonstrate that they are able to support themselves and their children with the help of subsidized housing and supportive services. During a face-to-face interview with members of the Transitional Residence Program team, applicants are screened to determine their commitment to achieving specific goals such as maintaining their recovery from addiction, establishing and maintaining healthy relationships, improving parenting skills and familial bonding, and improving personal and household budgeting skills. Once accepted into the program, a woman is asked to sign a lease and then she is permitted to move into one of the furnished apartments. All of the women living at the Residence receive housing and employment counseling services, along with case management services. The mothers also receive parent aide services, and, as needed, child care services. The majority of the program’s services are provided on-site, through home visits. Residents referred to THE PROGRAM’s individual counselor receive that service at the agency’s main office located at 1030 Walnut Street in Allentown – walking distance from the Residence. Home visits are conducted at least once weekly to ensure accountability, consistency, and to provide encouragement to the women as they strive to achieve their short- and long-term goals. The program also depends upon multiple volunteer services, including maintenance and life skills mentoring, as well as a multitude of referral services. During their stay at the Residence women and their children may be referred to receive services from the Allentown Ecumenical Food Bank, Allentown Housing Authority, Bethlehem Housing Authority, Lehigh County Housing Authority, Lehigh Carbon Community College, Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, the Lehigh County Drug and Alcohol Intake Unit, Lehigh County Conference of Churches, Catholic Social Agency, Lehigh County Mental Health Office, local 12-Step Anonymous groups and PA Careerlink. The effectiveness of the Transitional Residence Program is significant. In 2006, of the women who completed the program, 100 percent obtained the resources needed to move on to other housing – including permanent housing – prior to leaving the Transitional Residence. Notably, all the women who completed the program retained their jobs or obtained better ones. In addition, all the clients who completed the program achieved or made significant progress toward achieving the goals identified in their Individual Treatment Goal Plans, and established an Aftercare Plan. Funds to support the Transitional Residence Program come from a renewable McKinney-Vento Supportive Housing Program – Supportive Services Only (SHP-SSO) grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. Other support comes from an Allentown City Block Grant, the Trexler Trust, the Century Fund and other local foundations, and individual donors. The Day Reporting Program is a structured 18-week intermediate punishment program. In lieu of imprisonment women offenders are offered life-skills training, individual and group counseling, case management services, job readiness training and personalized employment counseling. Women are referred into the program by a criminal sentencing judge, probation officer, parole officer or prison/work release counselor. In 2007 the Day Reporting Program was expanded from 12 to 18 weeks. Six weeks of employment counseling/job readiness training were added to the 12 weeks of classroom-based psycho-social instruction. The women are required to seek, obtain and maintain employment in order to successfully complete the program. Consistent with women offenders nationwide, it is the first 30 to 90 days after completing classroom work when women are most vulnerable to relapsing and/or re-offending. Specifically, securing employment is a critical step in establishing stability in the lives of women offenders transitioning back into the community.
The life skills component of the Day Reporting Program recognizes the complex and diverse needs of today’s women-offender population and the 23-subject curriculum addresses these needs. The curriculum includes parenting skills, domestic violence prevention, self esteem, relapse prevention, anger management, nutrition and wellness, and practical language (reading, conversational, grammar) as well as mathematical skills. Through weekly individual and group counseling and regular case management each participant is held accountable for the actions that resulted in her involvement with the criminal justice system. The overall structure and rules of the Day Reporting Program support each participant’s efforts to put into practice healthy problem solving, goal setting and lifestyle changes. While in the program and following graduation, the women may be referred to receive services from the Allentown Health Bureau, A Perfect Fit for Working Women, Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley, Crime Victims Council, Lehigh County Drug and Alcohol Intake Unit, Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, Family Counseling Services, Lehigh County Conference of Churches, Lehigh County Mental Health Office, Lehigh County Department of Public Welfare, Lehigh Carbon Community College, local 12-Step Anonymous groups and PA CareerLink. Since 2000, women enrolled in the Day Reporting Program have had the opportunity to participate in special art projects coordinated in collaboration with the Allentown Art Museum (Click on Art Projects). The women’s progress through the Day Reporting Program is assessed at 30 and 90 days and each participant who successfully graduates leaves with a discharge plan to sustain her progress. Women who successfully complete the program also may return for services after their graduation, receiving individual counseling, graduate support group services and employment counseling services at no cost. While the women do not enter the Day Reporting Program voluntarily, over two-thirds successfully graduate every year. Within three months of graduating, the period of highest risk for relapsing and re-offending, nearly half of the women continue to live as productive, law abiding citizens in the Lehigh Valley. The Day Reporting Program is supported with funds received under the terms of a contract with the Lehigh County Department of Administration and with funds allocated by the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley. Additional support comes from the Trexler Trust and other local foundations, corporate sponsors including Air Products and Chemicals, and individual donors. RESPECT for adults is an HIV/AIDS prevention and education program designed to empower individuals to reduce and change behaviors that place them at risk for HIV infection. The focus of RESPECT is not just on HIV/AIDS education, but on attitudes and behaviors that place people at risk for HIV infection. RESPECT is facilitated in sequential psycho-educational groups by trained professionals who have experience working with adult at-risk populations. The curriculum is organized into four modules covered during 8- or 12-week cycles, depending on the length of each class:
What sets RESPECT apart from other HIV prevention education programs is its unique access to populations at exceptionally high risk of contracting and spreading HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Participants include women incarcerated at Lehigh County Prison, men housed at the state-run Allentown Community Corrections Center, women housed at the Lehigh County women’s work release facility (the Women’s Residential Community Center operated by THE PROGRAM for Women and Families since 1989) and women enrolled in the Day Reporting Program. The specific objectives of the RESPECT program are:
Every year, RESPECT reaches more than 350 juveniles and adults at risk of contracting HIV in the Lehigh Valley. In 2006-2007, RESPECT will include one-on-one supportive services designed to help participants who have completed the program effectively implement healthy behavioral changes. RESPECT is supported primarily by a grant from AIDSNET. Additional support comes from the Trexler Trust and other local foundations, corporate sponsors, and individual donors. STOPLIFT is a unique retail-theft educational program for adults who have committed the crime of retail or petty theft – shoplifters. STOPLIFT is organized as an intensive one-day class rather than being scheduled as a sequential series of short sessions over a period of several weeks during which the problems of attrition and poor attendance would undermine the program’s impact. The STOPLIFT curriculum is modeled after the Minnesota Youth Intervention Program Association’s evidence-based Stolen Moments seminar which has 25 years of documented success in dealing with the problem of shoplifting among adolescent and adult populations. STOPLIFT is taught by trained, credentialed academic instructors with experience working with at-risk populations. Participants engage in activities that facilitate the examination of their personal motives for stealing. They learn about the legal consequences they will face if they continue to shoplift, and they learn specific techniques to help them prevent a reoccurrence of the behavior. Referring agents to STOPLIFT include judges, district justices, public defenders, probation officers, store security officers, and social service agencies. Self-referrals also are accepted. Employment attendance excuses are provided to participants who request them. Each participant is required to pay a tuition fee of $100, in some cases in lieu of the fine imposed for having been convicted of shoplifting. An additional fee of $20 is added each time a participant misses a class and, with prior approval of the referring agent, is expected to re-schedule and attend another class. All STOPLIFT classes begin promptly at 9:00 a.m. and end at 2:00 p.m. Adult STOPLIFT classes are held at the Lehigh County Government Center on 17 South Seventh Street in Allentown, PA 18102. For more information and class schedules please contact Liz Fox, At-Risk Youth Program Director for THE PROGRAM for Women and Families, at 610-433-6556 x118 or at lfox@thepwf.org Referrals also can be made directly via fax at 610-433-1983. Please indicate clearly on the fax that this is a referral for Adult STOPLIFT and provide all of the relevant information needed to contact the adult being referred and the referring agent. Parents and Children Together (P.A.C.T.) Parents and Children Together is designed to bring together women offenders and their children in a safe, structured environment. P.A.C.T. programming also is available to parents who receive any Child Abuse Prevention Program services at THE PROGRAM, and their children. P.A.C.T. encompasses four annual events, free of charge, for clients (and in some cases former clients) of THE PROGRAM and their children: An “Eggstravaganza” egg hunt in the spring; a summer picnic; a fall Halloween party; and a winter Holiday Festival. Each event is specifically structured around healthy, fun activities that give the children an opportunity to experience positive interaction with their mothers around a seasonal event in the year. All of the children take home treats and small gifts from these events, but even more importantly they take with them special memories of time spent with their mothers. The events help to rebuild an important family bond broken during a mother’s incarceration. (Click on Events for dates and pictures of prior events) P.A.C.T. is supported by in-kind gifts from corporate sponsors including Just Born and Binney and Smith, and by grants from local foundations and gifts from individual donors. Since 2001, the winter Holiday Festival has been made possible through an ongoing collaboration with the Lehigh County Bar Association (with the event itself held at the Barrister’s Club in Allentown) and the Girl Scouts of the Greater Lehigh Valley. |
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This site last maintained July 15, 2008 |
