Alameda County (California) Sheriff’s Office – Reentry Educational Vocational and Mentoring Program (REVAMP) [was Sheriff Ahern’s Vocational Job Training Program at Santa Rita Jail (SRJ) Improving Employment Services and Connections in grants.gov]

Alameda County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) is applying for Improving Reentry Education and Employment Outcomes (IREEO) funds under category 2, Improving Employment Services and Connections. Funds from this grant will expand the nascent Reentry Educational Vocational and Mentoring Program (REVAMP) at Santa Rita Jail (SRJ) in Dublin, CA, which serves all of Alameda County (Bay Area). REVAMP deploys Deputies to provide individualized reentry planning based on validated risk/needs assessment, in-custody vocational job training and job readiness programming, and connections to employment and reentry support upon release to adults incarcerated at SRJ who are at medium- to high-risk of recidivating. REVAMP will partner closely with ACSO’s Operation My Home Town (OMHT), an evidence-based reentry model built around clinical case management and cognitive behavioral interventions. This multidisciplinary team approach will ensure all REVAMP participants receive comprehensive reentry planning and sequenced support and  mentoring both pre- and post-release. 225 men and women, age 18-60, will receive services.

This project will expand job training and job readiness services available at SRJ, and leverage existing resources to create an effective employment pipeline for reentrants to lower recidivism countywide. Vocational training programs to be offered will include: canine training to support rehabilitation of the participants, urban farming, auto detailing, commercial painting, furniture assembly, and a carpentry pre-apprenticeship. Upon release, participants will continue to receive clinical case management, support removing barriers to employment, assistance with emergency needs, and tools for employment.

Subrecipients will include Labor Union Local 304, which will teach the pre-apprenticeship, and Hatchuel Tabernik and Associates, a consulting firm that will conduct an independent evaluation of the program.

ACSO is seeking priority consideration under Priority 1(A) (narrative page 13) and Category 2 program-specific priority consideration (narrative pages 13-14). Vocational training programs are based on assessment of Labor Market Industry trends indicating high growth industries (food services, trade, repair and maintenance) and linked with Second Chance employers located in communities where most SRJ reentrants return after release. All participants will receive individualized reentry career planning while in-custody. Employment partners include: Amazon, Aramark, Bay Area Furniture Bank, Big House Beans Specialty Coffee Roasters, Conoco Concrete, ACSO’s Deputy Sheriff’s Activities League/Dig Deep Farms (DDF); and Laborers International Union of North America, Local 304. Employment outcomes will be tracked and monitored through Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS), criminal data systems, interviews, and surveys with participants and employers, to inform required grant performance measures.