GEO Reentry Services, along with the Orange County Re-entry Partnership, the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, Contra Costa County Office of Education, and Taller San Jose Hope Builders, cosponsored the second annual Orange County Reentry Resource Fair at the Honda Center in Anaheim on May 24.
The event, attended by 200 formerly-incarcerated individuals and their family members, was intended to support successful reentry by connecting ex-offenders with opportunities and resources in employment, education, housing, substance-abuse treatment, healthcare and veterans’ services.
Attorneys from the Public Defender’s Office offered assistance with paperwork to released individuals hoping to reduce their charges to misdemeanors under Proposition 47. California Proposition 47, passed in 2014, allows certain low-level, nonviolent felonies to be changed retroactively to misdemeanors on old criminal records.
Resumes in hand, the former inmates made their way from table to table at the fair. For many, finding employment can seem difficult and intimidating, but a wide-array of nonprofits and community service agencies were on hand to offer resources and information.
Such agencies included Connecting Bridges Together, Veterans First, VetNet/Working Wardrobes, Health Advocates, Illumination Foundation, Orange County Clean Slate Reentry Clinic, Volunteers of America, Women’s Transitional Living Center, Community Service Program’s Youthful Offender Wraparound, the Salvation Army, Orange County Contra Costa Education and others.
GEO Reentry operates two day reporting centers in Santa Ana, one for the Orange County Probation Department, and a second for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The day reporting centers offer evidence-based treatment programs and classes proven to reduce recidivism to offenders who meet certain criteria and maintain eligibility.
Read more about the resource fair in this great article by the Orange County Register, and see OCREP’s Facebook page for photos from the event.