OFFENDER AID AND RESTORATION OF ARLINGTON COUNTY OARA INC
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Mission Statement
OAR is a community-based nonprofit which envisions a safe and thriving community where those impacted by the legal system enjoy equal civil and human rights. Through our upstream work, we are confronting and dismantling racism in the legal system and across all systems. Our downstream work allows us to be on the journey with individuals of all genders returning to the community from incarceration and support their families in the homecoming process. And we offer alternative sentencing options through community service to youth and adults to avoid the trauma of incarceration and instead remain a part of helping the community thrive.
About This Cause
History & Overview The Offender Aid and Restoration movement was launched in 1968 by citizens responding to a prison riot in southern Virginia. These individuals wanted a justice system based on restoration, not retribution. They believed that incarceration should prepare people to return to the community. The goal was to break the cycle of recidivism that made prison a revolving door for many. OAR of Arlington, Alexandria and Falls Church was established in 1974 by individuals from local faith communities who were volunteering in the local jail. Early efforts included community service, mentoring, and job search assistance. OAR first received funding from Arlington County in 1981, and the County remains an important partner along with the Cities of Alexandria and Falls Church. In recent years, OAR and others have recognized and started to challenge the systemic racism responsible for mass incarceration and other structural inequalities in our community and country. We now address incarceration, the legal system, and all systems “upstream” (calling out the racism that permeates these systems and seeking social justice) and “downstream” (providing services to specific individuals). OAR journeys with individuals who have been affected by mass incarceration and works to end the systemic injustices created by racism across all systems. The overall population that accesses services from OAR is 48.7 percent African American, 21.5 percent Caucasian, 11.4 percent Latinx, 3.9 percent multi-racial, 2.7 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, and 11.8 percent other or not identified. Men account for 70 percent, and an estimated 80 percent have incomes below the poverty line. Although we work with youth under age 18 in our Community Service program, most of our participants (91 percent) are adults. In our Reentry program, a larger percentage of participants are people of color (more than 80 percent), virtually all have no income or qualify as low income, a much higher percentage are men, and 90 percent have only a high school education or less. In FY 2019, we worked with 1,990 unique individuals of all genders and their families. Community Service program participants included 1,334 adults and youth of all genders, and 708 adults of all genders received reentry support before and/or after release from incarceration. Most program participants live in Arlington County and the Cities of Alexandria and Falls Church or come from surrounding jurisdictions in the DC metro area, and these are the communities that benefit from our work. We also worked to prepare the community to welcome these individuals home. Though we have been doing this work for years, in FY 2020 we are dedicating a substantial portion of our time and budgetary resources to addressing racism as the root cause of the need for the services we offer. In the first seven months of the current fiscal year, we connected with 160 community members through the Undoing Racism® workshops we are sponsoring and through the caucus groups and Action Network we are facilitating. We also provided presentations about our anti-racist philosophy to more than 200 individuals. OAR actively recruits staff, volunteers, and Board members who have shared life experiences with OAR program participants. Program participants staff our front desk and help with OAR special events as part of their community service. They participate in our Action Network and other community programs for racial equity (always with stipends to compensate them for their time and travel costs), not only sharing their knowledge of, and lived experience with, racism and mass incarceration with others but also emerging as advocates and leaders for racial equity whose voices carry the same weight as those of others in the room. OAR is the only nonprofit in the area that not only journeys with specific individuals, adults and youth of all genders, impacted by the criminal legal system but that also addresses the systemic racism responsible for mass incarceration and other structural inequities in our society. We are unique in that our efforts actually reduce incarceration by providing courts with alternative sentencing options for adults and youth. No other reentry programs in our area offer intensive and highly individualized services to men and women both before and after they are released from jail or prison. Our level of access and ability to work both in groups and one-on-one with individuals within correctional facilities is unmatched. Our pre-release programming includes professional assessments of each individual’s needs and risks using validated instruments, and we are the only provider in the area that develops individual case management plans that incorporate these assessments and that offers appropriate individuals the opportunity to participate in group psychotherapy. OAR’s uniqueness continues in our post-release programming where participants are greeted by Community Service volunteers completing hours at the OAR office, a therapy dog, and team members with shared experiences. OAR also uses people-first and strength-based language and sees participants as experts on themselves and leaders for their own life and plans. We constantly seek feedback and guidance from participants and pride ourselves on having an ethical storytelling philosophy that respects the dignity and protects the privacy of each person we work with. Our Work Through our upstream work, OAR is confronting and challenging racism in the legal system and other societal structures. We are in the process of creating an anti-racist culture both within OAR and externally. All OAR team members have responsibilities related to this work, and all contribute to its success. Due to the pandemic, we have canceled all 2-day in-person Undoing Racism workshops this year. Instead, OAR is facilitating several 3-month long Anti-Racist and Racial Justice virtual cohorts. Current efforts include: -Full team engagement in a facilitated process to determine where OAR stands with respect to achieving an anti-racist culture within the organization and to identify and prioritize actions for continuing this transformation. -Presented a series of Undoing Racism® workshops for members of the community. -Facilitation of ongoing caucuses for those who complete this training to ensure that the learnings conveyed become daily practices and lived truths. -Launching of several 3-month long Anti-Racist and Racial Justice virtual cohorts that will focus on a curriculum about racial justice for members of the community. -Use of “scholarships” waiving registration costs for OAR’s 3-month Anti-Racist and Racial Justice virtual cohorts for OAR program participants and officials from the law enforcement community. -Facilitation of an ongoing Racial Equity Action Network to seek changes in laws, regulations, programs, and policies. OAR’s downstream social service efforts address three areas: Community Service, Pre-Release Reentry Services, and Post-Release Transition Services. OAR’s Community Service program works with adults and youth of all genders ordered by the Arlington and Falls Church courts to perform community service in lieu of incarceration or other penalties. Program participants also include individuals who do volunteer work under OAR supervision as a way to pay court costs and fines. By completing community service, individuals keep their jobs, stay in school, and remain with their families, avoiding the disruption, trauma, and lifelong burdens that come with incarceration while at the same time learning new skills. Some also get their cases dismissed altogether. OAR Community Service participants provide more than 100,000 hours of service to more than 300 nonprofits or public sector organizations in the D.C. metro area each year. Several have actually have been hired at their service sites because of their hard work and dedication. OAR’s reentry programming journeys with those incarcerated at the Arlington County Detention Facility, Alexandria’s William G. Truesdale Adult Detention Center, and Coffeewood State Correctional Center and individuals who have returned home to Arlington County and the Cities of Alexandria and Falls Church from these and other correctional facilities. Pre-release Services include individual risks and needs assessments, intensive reentry programming (including participatory workshops addressing reentry readiness, workforce readiness, substance use, fatherhood, wellness, social justice, and healthy relationships), one-on-one transition planning, group psychotherapy with licensed clinicians, family reunification activities, and vocational, educational and personal development classes. OAR’s Transition Services program ensures that individuals have access to continued case management and a comprehensive array of services that help them have a safe reentry. OAR efforts include job search coaching and extensive employment assistance, family reunification, help meeting basic needs (such as food, clothing, shelter, and transportation), and referrals for health care, substance use support programs, and other social services.