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Working Together to Give Prisoners a True Second Chance.

In 2007 Prison Fellowship developed Out4Life to find a better way to tackle recidivism nationwide—a costly fact in tax dollars, victims, and cultural degredation. To do this Out4Life brings together a diverse group of community stakeholders state by state. They include representatives of faith-based organizations, state agencies, corrections, community-based organizations, victim’s advocacy groups, and the business community. These groups then discuss how to coordinate reentry efforts in their state. Out4Life calls for the creation of coalitions that will provide pre-release, day-of-release, and post-release programming and mentoring to prisoners enrolled in the program. The goals of Out4Life are to:

• Raise awareness of needs and obstacles facing newly-released prisoners;

• Unite key government agencies, businesses, churches, faith-based organizations, and civic groups in a collaborative effort to help ex-prisoners successfully reintegrate into society;

• Identify and expand best practices that equip former prisoners to make a fresh start in life;

• Build regional coalitions that provide a comprehensive array of services to support returning prisoners.

Questions?