Pretrial Support Team: Partnering for Justice
We need your help!
We have found that we have more success in reaching referral sources for our Sue McKimm Fund for Advancement pretrial services project if we have introductions from people who know them. We are hoping you or someone you know may be able to facilitate introductions. We are asking for introductions to people you may know who are criminal defense attorneys, judges, public defenders, or otherwise involved in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.
Our Pretrial Support Team: Partnering for Justice (formerly Dream No Small Dreams) is ready to go. All we need now is to establish referral sources for our project. Our clients will be people released pretrial who could benefit from our services to have a successful pretrial period.
What is our Pretrial Support Team?
Our goal is to implement a practical approach to support client compliance with court orders. Each client will have a one-to-one Navigator who will phone them (research shows that phone calls are more effective than texts) with court dates and other court-required reminders. Each Navigator will assist a specific client, primarily by phone, serving as community Navigator and cheerleader. We will help each client access tangible resources from our project (e.g., transportation, groceries, clothing, temporary housing) as well as services in the community. Our Navigators may attend court with the clients. We will provide moral support in what can often be an intimidating, alienating process.
Please contact Pat Dillard, [email protected], 216-408-0132.
Our Project Manager and volunteer Navigators from our congregation and community will provide services. We have received generous support from:
* The Bail Project which has collaborated with us in designing our project
* A grant from the Sue McKimm Fund for Advancement of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Cleveland to underwrite our project
* A technical assistance grant from the Center for Effective Public Policy (CEPP) and Advancing Pretrial Policy and Research (APPR)