Third Sector works with our government agencies and communities to shift our criminal-legal system toward diversion and community-based models that make housing and support services more accessible to all.
Our Approach to Diversion and Reentry
Most of us, whether we are White, Black or Brown, believe that everyone should be able to live a full and healthy life, no matter what we may have done in our past. But for too long, we've put up barriers to prevent formerly incarcerated people and homeless people from having the economic opportunities they need to live the lives of their dreams.
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These barriers include having to navigate often siloed and cumbersome government bureaucracies and punitive policies that affect people long after they are no longer involved with the legal system. We should break the cycle of incarceration and homelessness by integrating and accelerating a continuum of support across criminal-legal, housing, health care, and workforce systems that build stable lives and safe communities.
Third Sector supports state and county criminal-legal systems and its housing, health care, and workforce partners to:
- Foster improvements in life outcomes for children, teens and young adults, and adults at risk of being involved with the legal system (or were previously or are currently involved);
- Implement education & training, mental health, and/or permanent supportive housing programs that achieve measurable outcomes after program completion; and
- Provide the tools and capacity our public agencies need to sustain a community-based continuum of support to address racial, gender, and geographic inequities.
Our work is rooted in a vision for the future where our governments invest in community-driven strategies instead of incarceration and surveillance.
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Featured Projects
| Project Name | Scope | Location | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Designing a Resource Center for Justice-Involved Individuals in Oklahoma | State | OK | Closed |
| Third Sector partnered with ProsperOK to design and launch JusticeLink, a free community center for justice-involved Oklahomans who need assistance navigating the criminal-legal system as they reenter their communities. The new center streamlines and simplifies the many services available to people dealing with criminal cases. | |||
| Designing a More Equitable and Youth-Centered Contracting Function for the Newly Formed Department of Youth Development | County | CA | Closed |
| Third Sector partnered with The W. Haywood Burns Institute and the LA County Chief Executive Office to establish the county’s Department of Youth Development (DYD). DYD sets more responsive and equitable ways for the county to deploy funding and resources to community-based prevention and support services for youth at risk, currently engaged, or previously involved with the criminal-legal system. | |||
| Supporting Formerly Incarcerated, Homeless Oregonians at High Risk of Recidivating | County | OR | Closed |
| Third Sector supported a Lane County partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development & U.S. Department of Justice in the first Permanent Supportive Housing project in the county to help formerly incarcerated, homeless Oregonians who are at high risk of recidivating. Led by Homes for Good Housing Agency, Sponsors, Inc. and Lane County Parole and Probation, The Way Home will serve 125 Oregonians struggling with homelessness over the next few years. | |||
All Diversion and Reentry Projects
| Project Name | Scope | Location | Status | |
| Designing a Resource Center for Justice-Involved Individuals in Oklahoma | State | OK | Closed | |
Description:
Third Sector partnered with ProsperOK to design and launch JusticeLink, a free community center for justice-involved Oklahomans who need assistance navigating the criminal-legal system as they reenter their communities. The new center streamlines and simplifies the many services available to people dealing with criminal cases.
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| Designing a More Equitable and Youth-Centered Contracting Function for the Newly Formed Department of Youth Development | County | CA | Closed | |
Description:
Third Sector partnered with The W. Haywood Burns Institute and the LA County Chief Executive Office to establish the county’s Department of Youth Development (DYD). DYD sets more responsive and equitable ways for the county to deploy funding and resources to community-based prevention and support services for youth at risk, currently engaged, or previously involved with the criminal-legal system.
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| Supporting Formerly Incarcerated, Homeless Oregonians at High Risk of Recidivating | County | OR | Closed | |
Description:
Third Sector supported a Lane County partnership with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development & U.S. Department of Justice in the first Permanent Supportive Housing project in the county to help formerly incarcerated, homeless Oregonians who are at high risk of recidivating. Led by Homes for Good Housing Agency, Sponsors, Inc. and Lane County Parole and Probation, The Way Home will serve 125 Oregonians struggling with homelessness over the next few years.
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| NYC Vets | City | New York City, NY | Closed | |
Description:
New York City's Department of Veterans' Services (DVS) is the newest City agency with the mission foster purpose driven lives for NYC service members, veterans, and their families. DVS partnered with Third Sector to conduct an Education and Employment Landscape Analysis to assess the current system of veterans services and accelerate DVS' capacity as an outcomes-oriented government agency. The three month engagement concluded with recommendations and a roadmap, highlighting next steps to structure outcomes-oriented initiatives to improve employment opportunities for veterans and their families.
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| LA County Just in Reach | County | Los Angeles County, CA | Closed | |
Description:
Los Angeles County has launched Just in Reach (JIR), a new health-based housing program that will reduce jail recidivism and help end homelessness among people experiencing repeat jail stays. Over four years, JIR will place 300 homeless individuals who are currently in custody within the county jail and who have a mental health and/or substance use disorder into permanent supportive housing. This permanent supportive housing initiative emerged from Third Sector's multi-year engagement with the LA Chief Executive Office and Board of Supervisors for how to fund and expand community-based and cost-saving alternatives to incarceration or homelessness for children, adults, or families. — This project closed in 2017.
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| Administrative Data Pilot: San Diego | City | San Diego, CA | Active | |
Description:
Third Sector, in partnership with Stanford’s Center on Poverty and Inequality (CPI), is helping San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA) to gain access to numerous administrative databases to better understand short- and long-term effects of the County’s various homelessness response efforts, specifically the Whole Person Wellness and Project One for All programs. Third Sector and CPI are helping to deploy data insights to improve and embed outcomes in the contracting structure of various homelessness and health initiatives, building the outcomes oriented contracting expertise that will assist in broader agency shifts.
San Diego HHSA joins Santa Cruz County’s Human Services Department and Washington State’s Department of Early Learning in Third Sector and CPI's Social Innovation Fund Administrative Data Pilot cohort, which will also include a Learning Community designed to facilitate cross-site collaboration and technical/process training around data analysis and deployment.
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| Salt Lake City Mayor’s Office: Homelessness & Reentry | City | Salt Lake City, UT | Closed | |
Description:
From 2014-2019, Third Sector designed and launched two projects to support residents facing homelessness and behavioral health challenges in Salt Lake County, Utah. Homes Not Jails, a $6 million effort, scaled comprehensive Rapid Rehousing and wraparound supportive services to 315 individuals exiting county jail, which resulted in a 46% increase in timely access to mental health services and a 16% reduction in shelter and jail month utilization (vs. control group). Another $6 million project, "Criminal Justice REACH," served over 225 high-risk, high-need justice-involved residents suffering from substance use disorder and other co-occurring criminogenic characteristics, which reduced days of incarceration by 40% and improved employment by 20% (vs. control group).
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| Oregon Juvenile Alternatives to Incarceration | County | Marion/Multnomah County, OR | Closed | |
Description:
Third Sector worked with Marion and Multnomah Counties to conduct PFS feasibility in partnership with the national nonprofit Youth Villages and its Intercept program, with the goal of reducing crime and systems involvement for youth ages 10-18 assessed at medium or high risk of committing further delinquent acts in the next 12 months and at-risk of placement in a youth correctional facility at the Oregon Youth Authority. Marion and Multnomah Counties demonstrated an innovative partnership between two county-level governments and the state Oregon Youth Authority, offered unique urban and rural contexts for demonstration sites, and also created an opportunity to work with Youth Villages, a national evidence-based nonprofit with ability to scale interventions. — This project closed in 2016.
The feasibility study is available here.
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| Massachusetts Juvenile Justice PFS Initiative | State | Massachusetts | Active | |
Description:
The Massachusetts Juvenile Justice PFS Initiative, the fourth PFS project launched in the country and the largest to-date, was designed to improve outcomes for hundreds of at-risk young men in the probation system or leaving the juvenile justice system. The intentions of the Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Pay for Success Initiative was to, not only improve the lives of young people, but also to reduce crime, promote safer and stronger communities and save taxpayer dollars. The initiative allowed Roca, a nonprofit based in Chelsea, to provide its high-impact intervention to 929 at-risk young men aged 17 to 23 who were in the probation system or exiting the juvenile justice system. Roca’s programming aims to reduce recidivism and increase employment through intensive street outreach and targeted life skills, education and employment programming. The Roca intervention was delivered over an intensive two-year period followed by two years of follow-up engagement.
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| Project Welcome Home | County | Santa Clara County, CA | Active | |
Description:
Project Welcome Home is the first Pay for Success project launched in California. In partnership with Abode Services, the County of Santa Clara intends to serve 150-200 chronically homeless individuals that are frequent users of the County's emergency rooms, acute mental health facilities, and jail. Abode will provide chronically homeless individuals with access to community-based clinical services and permanent supportive housing using evidence-based Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) and a Housing First approach. These services are designed to end the participants’ homelessness, increase income, and provide increased access to ongoing physical and behavioral health services.
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| Cuyahoga County Partnering for Family Success Program | County | Cuyahoga County, OH | Active | |
Description:
Cuyahoga County launched the first family homelessness and child welfare project in the nation, known as the Partnering for Family Success Program. The Partnering for Family Success Program began implementation in early 2015. The program aims to reduce the length of stay in out-of-home foster care placement for children whose caregivers are homeless. A confluence of factors including substance abuse and mental illness make it difficult for these caregivers to secure stable housing that empowers them to successfully complete their case plan with the County’s child welfare system and build a safe home environment for their children.
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| National Council on Crime and Delinquency | Nation | National | Closed | |
Description:
With support from the California Endowment, Third Sector worked with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency to develop Pay for Success feasibility studies in the arenas of child welfare and restorative justice. The feasibility studies explored how specific interventions can be adapted for Pay for Success contracting on the county level. — This project closed in 2014.
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Get in touch
Oscar Benitez
Managing Director, Diversion & Reentry
San Francisco, CA | obenitez@thirdsectorcap.org