Celebrating Reentry Month and Supporting Survivor Reentrants
March 31, 2021
April is not only Sexual Assault Awareness Month, it is also Reentry Month, which celebrates those who are returning home post-incarceration and reentering the community. Therefore, it is a great time to highlight a NCCASA project that will be featured in a workshop during our upcoming 2021 Biennial Conference in May.
The “Supporting Survivor Reentrants” Project brings together NCCASA, Orange County Rape Crisis Center and the Orange County Local Reentry Council to create resource and strategies to serve survivors of sexual violence and human trafficking who are reentering the community. It centers the unique experience of “survivor-reentrants” and the barriers and challenges they face–battling COVID, achieving self-sufficiency, accessing needed services, while avoiding recidivism–with the additional trauma of sexual violence. The project has highlighted the intersection of the reentry community, racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal legal system, the impact of COVID and sexual violence on marginalized communities.
In a facilitated discussion for the conference workshop, project team members will discuss what we have learned about these intersections, the needs and barriers for healing unique to survivor reentrants, and the value of building collaborative partnerships between Local Reentry Councils and North Carolina rape crisis programs.
It is our hope that this workshop will inspire member programs in their service delivery to survivors pre and post release.
Blog post by Courtney Dunkerton, Anti-Human Trafficking Specialist