Taking Steps for Supported Reintegration (Phase II)
About the project.
The project aims to help those of African descent with a criminal record build sustainable support networks that assist their reintegration into the community. The focus will be on developing culturally responsive and competent programming inside correctional facilities and in the Black community across Nova Scotia by taking an intersectional approach to addressing the mental health needs of these individuals. This project will serve as a continuum between the prison and the community in a substantially different way from the relationships within the correctional system. It emphasizes a holistic and community-centered approach that mobilizes existing resources through partnerships to lessen gaps associated with recidivism, adverse mental health outcomes and violence prevention among those of African descent. The activities would include, among others, developing mental health crisis interventions, trauma-informed counselling, legal outreach support, group-based intervention in correctional facilities and communities, including recreation that cater to individuals of African descent with lived experience of the criminal justice system, and delivering training programs and developing a dissemination plan to raise awareness about mental health and promote the project
