The Volunteers of America Southwest ORP project will promote sustained recovery and reduce recidivism among 375 adult ex-offenders with substance abuse disorders and co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders who are reentering the community from correctional facilities in San Diego County, California, by providing intensive outpatient treatment, wraparound supports, and aftercare and relapse prevention services for participants. Project participants will be men and women who are referred by corrections partners, and who are identified through screening and assessment as being good candidates for treatment in an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP). The project will serve 75 participants each year for 5 years.
The project is designed to meet three interrelated goals, each of which is tied to objectives that will allow measurement of success over time. First, the project will expand community-based services to include IOP programming for individuals with SUD and COD who are reentering the community from corrections facilities. Second, it will develop a collaborative relationship between correctional facilities and community-based treatment and service providers that will meet the needs of reentering individuals with SUD and COD during incarceration and after release. Finally, the project will reduce recidivism among adult offenders with SUD and COD by providing IOP treatment, wraparound services, and aftercare support they need to enter sustained recovery, develop skills and resources necessary for self-sufficiency, and increase their overall well-being. For this final goal, success will be evaluated by tracking participants’ progress in four main areas: 1) substance use/sobriety, 2) employment/income and housing stability; 3) mental health and social functioning, and 4) criminal behavior. Over the life of the project, project staff and an expert evaluator will collect, monitor, and analyze data tied to project objectives and requirements to ensure consistently high service quality and continuous progress toward goals.
As with all of VOASW’s extensive programming for vulnerable people, this program will be constructed around client-driven, strengths-based, goal-oriented individualized care and treatment for project participants. Experienced staff will use validated tools to complete comprehensive assessments of each participant and gain a thorough understanding of that person’s strengths, needs, and challenges. Case managers will collaborate with each person to develop an individualized treatment plan designed to meet his or her own goals for recovery and stable living, and will coordinate comprehensive care chosen from a broad array of treatment and supportive services to meet participant goals. Effective evidence-based practices, including Seeking Safety, Motivational Interviewing, Trauma-Informed Care, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and Moral Reconation Therapy, will be used in treatment. Participants will be supported with comprehensive wraparound services including assistance with income, housing, and employment, and social supports, and six months of aftercare and relapse prevention services.