Cohort 2023

Just Communities Arizona

Measuring Innovative Community Interventions and Reentry Services

Pima County, AZ

Research has consistently demonstrated that communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the punishment system and the trauma and harms that ensue after incarceration. Further, housing needs are particularly important for system-involved people as a conviction history makes it extremely difficult to secure safe and affordable housing and can result in homelessness and recidivism. In Pima County, Arizona, which has the fifth-highest arrest rate in the state and ranks seventh on the Social Vulnerability Index, Just Communities Arizona (JCA) found that belonging and connection to community, as well as affordable housing and community-centered alternatives to incarceration, were frequently cited by residents as related to their feelings of safety and well-being. In response to this, Just Communities Arizona seeks to identify and elevate community organizations that are addressing those gaps in the community and providing people who have been incarcerated with the opportunity to access resources (housing, case management, counseling, etc.).

With Catalyst Grant funding, Just Communities Arizona will partner with the Earnest House LLC to evaluate the effectiveness of the latter’s transitional housing program and jail diversion services. In addition to housing, counseling, and case management, the Earnest House employs several creative approaches that appear effective in helping people who have been touched by the criminal legal system. These approaches align with the responses to Just Communities Arizona’s Reimagining Community Safety survey, on which respondents emphasized the importance of treating people with dignity and respect, providing opportunities for interaction with the natural world, and community engagement. Their project is intended to develop means to measure the impacts of these less traditional and more social/emotional program components to show that they produce superior outcomes and can be replicated in other community interventions. This work will include surveys of Earnest House residents, analysis of available program data, and connections with the local community to better understand how these approaches correlate with more positive individual social/emotional outcomes, such as feelings of safety, belonging and connection, prosocial skills, and reduced feelings of shame, stigma, and isolation. This work will help other organizations find ways to quantitatively demonstrate impact by measuring less “tangible” elements of community-centered programs in addition to traditional outcomes like later recidivism, obtaining employment, securing housing, and education.