Robert graduated from STRIVE New York's Fresh Start program in 2022.

 

FRESH START

REENTRY 25+

Fresh Start provides comprehensive supportive services to returning citizens and refers them to partners for housing, wellness services, and other needs, all to ensure they stay stable and healthy. Intensive case management is recognized as the best practice in reducing recidivism for returning citizens.

 

STRIVE Fresh Start is made possible in part thanks to generous support from Gotham Gives.

Returning citizens often face the greatest barriers to sustainable employment. Recent studies show that the re-entry population has an unemployment rate of 27.3%, nearly five times higher than the national average. The Prison Journal indicates that employment is critical to successful reentry.

To address the need for re-entry services in New York City, STRIVE offers proven successful outcomes through a new program designed to serve the specific needs of returning citizens: Fresh Start. Fresh Start began in October 2021 and is on track to serve 300 New Yorkers over the next three years.

 
 

STRIVE has a long commitment to equity through opportunity for those impacted by the justice system.

Fresh Start is based on our five-pillar service model, which is designed to provide case management, job training, and employment opportunities. Services are focused on motivational interviewing, include trauma-informed and strengths-based approaches, and incorporate social-emotional learning that reinforces positive behaviors and responses to stress that will result in success on the job.

Fresh Start provides comprehensive supportive services to returning citizens and refer them to partners for housing, wellness services, and other needs, all to ensure they stay stable and healthy. Intensive case management is recognized as the best practice in reducing recidivism. STRIVE offers returning citizens individualized development and learning plans while they progress through career pathway training, credentialing, and sustainable employment in high-demand fields.

Animated graphic illustrating that 1/3 of New York City felony and misdemeanor probationers were re-arrested within three years

Fresh Start provides:

  • Transportation

  • Program stipends for items need for employment

  • incentives for completion of milestones

  • a paid 6-week internship

  • food during the program

  • emergency funds

  • lifetime alumni services

Who we serve: STRIVE enrolls those who are 25 or older, have never been convicted of a sex crime other than prostitution, and are within 180 days of release or under supervision. We capture if someone is convicted of a felony (violent or non-violent) and sex crime conviction – everything else is self-disclosed

We expect that 70% of Fresh Start students will be employed, or in an apprenticeship, or engaged in post-secondary education by the end of the three years. STRIVE has a long history working with returning citizens in New York City. In a reentry program that ran 2018-2021, STRIVE graduates met or exceeded goals for employment with a recidivism rate of only 1%.

 

Since 2012, STRIVE has successfully operated re-entry programs in multiple cities across the country, for both young adults ages 18-24 and adults of all ages. The recidivism rate for STRIVE’s former reentry program, FOCUS, was less than 2%. FOCUS was funded in full by the U.S. Department of Labor.