Safer Foundation

Employment services in Illinois and Iowa - provided individual intake assessment, and skills training who successfully secured employment in technology, construction, solar, transportation/distribution, warehousing/logistics, finance/banking, healthcare, food services/hospitality and advanced manufacturing. Our approach to building talent pipelines includes work-based learning programs. Our pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs are designed to provide reentry populations access to apprenticeship programs in the skilled trades. In addition to achieving permanent employment (with over 290 employer partners), Safer supports men, women, and youth in building better lives, stronger families, and Safer communities. Our ascend client service model utilizes a holistic approach to delivering services to participants and adopts evidence-based practices across all Safer sites. These services include access to case management, education, employment training, financial literacy, transitional and permanent employment, housing, transportation, substance use and mental health counseling receiving behavioral health services, and other support services referral. Ascend encompasses a set of practices that are client-centered and that support staff with ongoing training, continuous learning and service quality improvement. Safer helps people thrive and build a future they never thought possible.

Basic skills/education in Illinois and Iowa - Safer Foundation's basic skills program in Illinois and Iowa focuses on the literacy improvements of teenage youth and adults with an arrest, or criminal history in their background as a barrier to self-sufficiency. Safer seeks to increase the skillsets of participants in reading, math, and writing. Development of these skills leads to improved opportunities for entering employment with higher wage- earning possibilities. Long-term, Safer seeks to further the employment opportunity of participants through attainment of a high school equivalency diploma (hsed), and/or transitions into post-secondary or credentialing training programs. Safer delivers education services through direct instruction, tutoring, and digital platform programming. To facilitate learning success and participant credentialing; Safer uses remote learning options and serves as a pearson vue examination center for credentialing of hsed participants. These services are often funded through collaborative efforts of stakeholders and partners such as wioa title i - iv, lwib, doj, ccdoc, idoc, and other municipalities and cbos.

Safer Foundation, as a nonprofit private agency, operates secure residential work release centers for the Illinois department of corrections. Our two adult transition centers (atc's) are work release facilities which allow incarcerated individuals to serve the final 3 to 24 months of their state prison sentences in a community-based setting. The goal is to provide selected participants with the opportunity to transition into the workforce, reconnect with family, and reintegrate into their neighborhoods before release, ultimately increasing their chances of becoming successful, law- abiding community members. The two atc's have a combined recidivism rate of 16.7%, which is the lowest among prisons & atc's in the state of Illinois. Reducing recidivism directly impacts crime rates. Services offered at the atc's include substance abuse treatment, medical assistant treatment, Safer skills training (sst), mentoring, high school equivalency testing, and demand skill vocational training. In addition, nurses from the university of Illinois health center are available at each facility. In fy23, over 400 clients were served at the two adult transition centers. However, due to the ongoing covid pandemic related idoc directives, the movement of new residents from idoc to Safer atc's was lower than no-pandemic years. On average, 100 high school equivalencies are completed each year, and atc residents are encouraged to participate in-demand skill training programs to earn industry-recognized credentials.

Wellness and counseling supportive reentry

The supportive reentry network is a crisis mental health, substance use, ssi/ssdi, housing, and other services (388), employment assistance (included) assistance obtaining state ids, social security cards, resume writing, job referrals, clothing needs, and transportation support) (245) and job starts (194).