Affiliates and Offenders Recovery Program inc

Affiliates & Offenders Recovery Program, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit organization offering outreach and education in the South Los Angeles area. Their programs include actively running classes and providing resources parenting education, life skills, job preparation, homeless engagement, and correspondence classes to those incarcerated that are coming eligible for parole and/or re-entry. We are currently providing correspondence classes within the prison system as well in five correctional facilities and are expanding. We are attempting to address mental health issues by engaging the community through community care events by bringing the community together for events and providing information that combats bullying, gang violence, and criminality, with an approach that is centered on early intervention, prevention, and re-integration of those that are re-entering the community after incarceration. We provide educational materials that discuss the root causes of these issues, where they started, why they are perpetuated, and how to stop the cycle. The founder and CEO of this program created this program as a way to create an opportunity for himself to be eligible for parole by demonstrating reform for himself and how he planned to combat the lifestyle that got him incarcerated when he re-entered society. Since, his re-entry into the community in 2016, he has dedicated his life to this service and has touched the lives of thousands of people and families that are currently struggling with the same addictions. He is well-respected in the community in which he serves. He is certified as a facilitator to provide instruction and conduct classes for Narcotics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous, Conflict Resolution, and Anger Management. He uses the combined knowledge of these skills along with his own lived experience to provide education and put on events that are focused on community awareness and resources to help those stills struggling. His road to recovery is one that most people don’t talk about. While he has left the gang lifestyle, turned away from violence and is now giving back to the community, he struggles daily with PTSD and an addiction that he chooses to turn away from each and every day. Because of his lived experience, he can talk about these issues in a way that is respected by the community that he serves. They listen to him. He has taken the same leadership skills that led others into a criminal lifestyle and targeting the families of those still afflicted to take the same road that he’s chosen.