Communities in Cooperation

STRENGTHENING FAMILIES:CIC provides Family Empowerment, including two employment programs and human services center one-stops in Essex and Union Counties in NJ, serving more than 500 participants annually in meeting employment and social service needs. Life coaching coupled with trauma-informed care methods and using cultural competencies contribute to overall programming success.CHILD WELFARE:CIC annually services 150 youths, including foster care adolescents, absent any participant encountering school drop-out or the justice system encounter through resiliency training and risk factor strengthening using evidence-based curricula and experiential methods to enhance pro-social behaviors year-round. RE-ENTRY FROM PRISONS:CIC is a leader in juvenile reentry wellness services in Union County, NJ, and a state-wide leader in women's reentry, pre-and post-release. Annually serving around 40 justice-involved youth and 100 justice-involved women, outcomes demonstrate a less than a ten percent recidivism rate and/or violation rate in both reentry programs surpassing state and national recidivism averaging at around 50%. As an outcome, CIC creates safer neighborhoods and communities by helping the youth and female offender population navigate systems to attain self-sufficiency through relationship building, encouragement, training, and case management with intense follow-up for their opportunity to become law-abiding citizens.Services are designed to meet client needs, including but not limited to employment, job training, family reunification, food, clothing, housing, connections to education, health, and social services and awareness sessions, as well as pro-bono legal, support groups, and mentoring.