Organization: Partnership for Re-Entry Program
The Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Partnership for Re-Entry Program (PREP) is a nonprofit organization and restorative justice program that seeks ways of improving the successful re-integration of parolees back into the community through pre-release self-help modular correspondence courses. The goals of the program are to transform individuals into productive members of society, to reduce the population of our jails and prisons, and to make our communities safer and stronger. PREP has served over 12,000 individuals in California since its inception in 2007.
Project: Communications Fellow
PREP has an archive of participant data that is a powerful yet untapped source of information on the need for this type of restorative justice programming as well as its impact on the individuals it has served. PREP seeks a graduate student with advanced skills in data analysis and communication to draw conclusions from and tell stories about this participant information. The impact of PREP in individual lives has been profound, yet the organization lacks compelling, data-driven, and qualitative narratives of its impact.
The Communications Fellow will translate PREP’s record into various forms such as reports, infographics, spotlight stories, histories, and testimonials so that PREP can understand more fully its own impact and communicate its reach and significance to potential funders and partners.
The Communications Fellow will analyze the data and present findings on the following topics:
- Individuals enrolling in and completing the Turning Point (TP) correspondence course
- Quantity and effectiveness of Board of Parole Hearing (BPH) support letters, including how many “Lifers” have received a parole date
- Individuals who have taken the INSIGHT course, received a parole date, and/or have been released
In addition to the quantitative analysis of impact, the Fellow will use the participant records as well as conduct interviews to determine how and what PREP courses have meaningfully affected people’s lives, as well as record testimonies of what brought individuals to make significant changes in their behavior.
The Fellow will also contact the Board of Parole Hearings to create an information page on people who have received a BPH date and will need support letters. Additionally, the Fellow will set up a system for following up with PREP participants once they have been paroled. The Fellow will also research possible grant opportunities to support PREP’s restorative justice work and assist PREP staff with grant proposals.
The internship will take place over ten or twenty weeks, depending on the Fellow’s availability and PREP priorities and will begin June 15, 2020. The Fellow will visit PREP’s Los Angeles office two to three times during the internship and can work remotely while maintaining regular communication with PREP staff.