Most of us (maybe all of us) were a little anxious to contact our first client for the Pretrial Support Team. What we found was that each person was happy to hear from us and grateful for our help.
Last week we met as a group to share our stories, and it was heartwarming. We found that we could learn together the ins and outs of finding community resources, and the tremendous help of just calling the wonderful people at 211 for guidance on which community organizations would be a good fit for our client. And of course, Stephanie, our terrific Project Director, is always available for consultation.
We have received enthusiastic reactions for our work from the Public Defenders (our referral source}, a Cleveland Councilwoman, a probation officer, and most importantly our clients. We have ensured that people are able to follow their court orders by providing reminder calls and transportation. We helped people with obtaining food, housing, ID, furniture, addiction services, and more.
If you are interested in learning more about this important and meaningful work, please consider joining us on Sunday, January 19th after services at 11:30 in room 108. We are fortunate to have Jessica Ireland, our technical assistance advisor from the national organization Center for Effective Public Policy with us to talk about what the Pretrial Support Team is all about. Light lunch, no obligation. We welcome you!
