Our Work
St. Landry-Evangeline United Way works with the state's Prisoner Reentry Initiative, and specifically for the Ville Platte District (St. Landry, Evangeline and Allen Parishes). As the Community Coordinator for the District, we serve as the facilitator and implementer of the Louisiana Prisoner Reentry initiative (LA-PRI) in our local communities through building a strong and effective coalition of community leaders, agencies, employers, and resource providers.
Coalition members meet regularly to insure communication channels are open, that we continue to identify new resources and that we monitor and support existing services for the formerly incarcerated.
Almost 50,000 people a year enter homeless shelters immediately after exiting incarceration. Returning from jail, prison or juvenile detention places an immediate barrier to stable housing and employment.
Goals
- Connect offenders re-entering society to resources
- Raising awareness and advocating for services for re-entry success
- Reduce recidivism in Central Louisiana
About LaPri
LA-PRI is the Louisiana Prisoner ReEntry Initiative. It is a multi-sector collaborative approach to improving public safety through reducing recidivism by providing wraparound support to prisoners released back to their communities. It is a 3-phase program – Getting Ready (Institutional Phase), Going Home (ReEntry Planning Phase) and Staying Home (Community Supervision and Discharge Phase.) Each parish or region forms a steering team which is led by a co-chair from each phase – the warden for Phase 1, the Probation and Parole Representative for Phase 2, and the presiding chair from the Community for Phase 3. Each IST engages in an annual Comprehensive Needs Assessment process to identify Assets, Barriers, Gaps and Proposed Solutions in each service area. Each service area is represented on the ST by a Subject Matter Expert in their field who leads a committee to aggregate information, identify resources and carry out service delivery model planning.