Boston Strive: Prepared to Work / Determined to Succeed

Reintegration Initiative

Issue: Untrained, unskilled and uneducated Ex-offenders in Greater Boston have difficulty finding employment post-release, causing many to relapse to former illegal activities resulting in reincarceration.

STRIVE’s Response: STRIVE responds to request to perform onsite information sessions in state, county and federal institutions all of whom refer discharged ex-offenders and parolees to the program. STRIVE has developed a long standing relationship with the Superior, Municipal and district courts in and around the Greater Boston area as well as with the US Court which refers Federal Probationers to the program.

STRIVE is actively involved in the Roxbury Choices program, an initiative to turn probation from a punitive sentence into a programmatic support relationship between the probationer, the court probation department, the District Attorney's Office and a collective of community service providers.

The greatest and most rewarding types of social rehabilitation and societal reintegration are achieved through work and education.

Approximately 300 Ex-offenders are released per month to the Greater Boston area where funding decreases have reduced the number of services available to ex-offenders matriculating back into society. The key to their post-release success is preparation for the return to society. STRIVE saw this need and made its Ruggles Station location a dedicated Ex-offender Workforce Development Training Program in 2003. By August 2005, there were 211 graduates from the program and 163 had obtained employment as a direct result of their program involvement.

Upon release inmates of state, county and federal institutions may be referred to Boston area STRIVE locations for professional development training and placement assistance.

We offer a workforce development program geared to meet the needs of the ex-offender.

• Professional Development Training
• Attitudinal Training
• G.E.D. Program
• Computer Training
• Supportive Services
• Placement Assistance
• Information & Referral Services