Established in 1988, Chattanooga Endeavors is the first and longest-serving re-entry program in East Tennessee. #Chattanooga #SecondChances #IntegrativeJustice
A new Majority Need
Short-term transition programs that focus on entry-level employment and other one-off services are no longer enough for the majority of returning citizens who face permanent barriers to the workforce because of mental illness, cognitive disorder, physical disability or age. In keeping with our tradition of developing solutions where the need is greatest and help is hard to find, we are building a new model that quickly addresses the immediate needs of everyone returning to Chattanooga from prison and that helps to create long-term sustainability for those who are marginalized in the workforce by age or disability.
Research, Experience, & Common Sense
Presently about half of the people who are returning to Chattanooga from prison only need a job to get on with their lives. The rest are living with a disability that makes gainful employment unrealistic — at least in moment. Our framework, which is based on research, experience, and common sense, seeks to create the least costly and most efficient pathway to employment and career advancement for those who are able while concentrating more time and resources on those who are not.
The factors that make our model effective are that it:
- Begins with sentencing and continues for as long as it takes for a participant to be financially sustainable in the community.
- Provides only as much help as needed, concentrating resources on those with the most server barriers.
- Emphasizes case management, peer support, and citizen advocates instead of costly programming making our model both uniquely individualized and achievable with a reasonable budget.
- Uses justice data to take the guess work out of who needs help, what they need, and where they are -- making efficiency a powerful tool in reentry strategies.
Note: In the diagram below, we are presently building the resources to expand our support services in the community.
