Creating Restorative Opportunities and Programs
Creating Restorative Opportunities & Programs falls within the Workforce Development for Justice Involved People category: Organizations that provide training, employer development, career placement and permanent housing resources that help justice involved adults re-integrate into the community following their release from incarceration.
The CROP Organization is directed by a team of Proximate leaders that collectively have 112 years of experience in the Criminal Justice system. The five men you see in this image spent the better part of 10 years inside of prison working together to build rehabilitative programs that added value not only to the incarcerated population, but also the community that lived beyond the razor wire fences. While they have only been out of prison for a relatively short amount of time, CROP's Directors have also benefitted from incredible support for their vision to reimagine reentry as they continue to work in honor of personal and systemic transformation.
Financials
Programs
Ready for Life
CROP Organization's Ready for Life program is guided through the perspective that returning citizens can thrive when provided the opportunity to receive training, gainful employment, and stable living arrangements.
The CROP Organization’s Career Campus is a live-in training facility, which provides short-term housing to returning citizens who have been admitted to the Ready for Life program. Once housed at the Career Campus, the participants (identified as CROP Associates) begin the program’s 1st phase called Leadership for Life. This three-month introductory phase provides participants with personal leadership and professional skill-development tools that equips Associates to thrive in the workplace environment.
Once Associates have completed Leadership for Life, they transition into the 2nd phase of the program called Skilled for Life. During Skilled for Life participants are provided with 6-months of hard-skill training for a market driven career that will ultimately provide a sustainable wage and potential for upward mobility. CROP has chosen to begin with Alcohol and Other Drug Counseling and Tech Sales as the two tracks for Associate reskilling.
Upon completion of their comprehensive reskilling, Associates enter the 3rd phase of the program - Equipped for Life. During this final three-month phase Associates are offered either an internship or full-time employment with one of CROP’s B2B partners who have pledged to provide employment opportunities.
During the final six-weeks of Ready for Life, Associates begin the transition into permanent housing through the 4th phase - Housed for Life. Utilizing the previous 9-months at the career campus as rental history, and B2B relationships with local property owners, CROP Alumni are offered a variety of stable long-term housing solutions within the Bay Area.
Exercises in Empathy
CROP's Exercises in Empathy program partners with schools and the general public with carceral people. The program is founded upon the principle that violations create obligations and supports the victims of crime and their need to heal.
EiE work with “men of amends” committed to restitution and rehabilitation using novels, poems and stories as engines of empathy in circle discussions.
EiE meetings usually involve 80-120 people, incarcerated and guests, occur once a week, and last for about 90 minutes. Typically we work in six- to ten-week sessions culminating in a certificate of completion ceremony.
