Fresh Start 508

We're All In Together🙏🏾

We're All In Together🙏🏾

passed the Senate Public Safety Committee! Engaging in therapy can help incarcerated people heal, understand their trauma, and work on becoming the best versions of themselves as they prepare for the chance to come home.

Prison is a place where people must come to grips with their trauma and the events and people that have negatively affected their lives. But many incarcerated people do not have streamlined access to mental health care. will redefine therapy so more incarcerated people can access therapy regardless of security level.

"Mental health care is incredibly stigmatized in prisons, not only by the incarcerated population, but also by the staff. This undoubtedly leads to people avoiding care to avoid the classification and stigmatism. Granting access to therapy - without mandating a corresponding label on that person’s record - will help incarcerated people learn healthy coping mechanisms so they can process hardship without reverting back to decision making that leads to harm to our communities,” said ARC’s Chief Strategy Consultant Esteban Núñez, who gave an impactful personal testimony on the need to expand access to mental health care inside CDCR.

When people engage in therapy on the inside, they are set up with the chance to come home and are prepared to deal with the many mental challenges during reentry.

We are grateful to Scott Wiener for authoring this important bill and to Mental Health America of California.

We're All It Together🙏🏾

Fresh Start 508 Fresh Start Wellness Center is a 501(c)(3) minority owned nonprofit devoted to the support and education of male youth and folks struggling with the criminal justice system. Fresh Start also promotes mental health awareness in the forgotten communities.

We're All In It Together🙏🏾

Former gang leader struggles to find nonprofit funding, as he works to provide jobs for at-risk populations Even as the Fresh Start’s services earn accolades and are in demand, Kiser has struggled to find consistent funding for his nonprofit.