PATHFINDERS OF OREGON

The Pathfinder Network's overall goals are:

1. To provide programming that gives criminal justice-involved adults and at-risk youth the skills and supports they need to avoid entering or reentering the corrections system.

2. To provide positive parenting education for parents who are justice- and/or child welfare-systems involved in order prevent child abuse and neglect.

3. To strengthen families with criminal justice-involvement by providing best practice trauma- and gender-responsive programs for adults in custody and, for adults reentering the community after incarceration and their families to support a brighter future for their them and their children.

The Pathfinder Network designs and delivers evidence-based, trauma- and gender-responsive curricula and training that generates positive change found to reduce the risk of recidivism for individuals, thereby reducing re-traumatization for children.

We have sold and trained corrections and social justice agencies in 32 states and two other countries, in the use of our evidence-based, proprietary Parenting Inside Out (PIO) curriculum.

We provide quality, innovative community-based reentry services that support and stabilize justice system and child welfare-involved individuals, and their families, that includes programs specific to the needs of children impacted by the adverse childhood experience (ACE) of parental incarceration.

We advocate and raise awareness for broad system improvements, and expand available resources and services for children and families impacted by incarceration locally, regionally, and nationally.

As a mid-size, 26-year old nonprofit, we have strong board oversight that includes board members experienced in finance, equity and inclusion and the criminal justice system. We also have board members with lived experience that includes incarceration and success after, in their individual lives with their families, jobs and communities. Our administrative staff are trained and experienced in best practices in finance, program, administrative and fund development. At our Center for Family Success, over 60% of staff are from communities of color and have lived experience.

We are able to meet goals and determine progress through best practice outcome measures designed for out individual programs in corrections and in the community. We have successfully sustained multiple, long term service contracts with the Oregon Department of Community Corrections, the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice, the Oregon Department of Education and the federal Bureau of Justice grants, foundations and corporations.

Our clients help to ensure we are meeting our goals by responding to regular feedback requests. We not only seek feedback but we listen to and whenever possible, build their suggestions into the best practice no cost services that we offer. One example is that our Center for Family Success (CFFS) in Multnomah County, Oregon which includes the City of Portland, will soon add weekly AA meetings for women. This new service comes after several women clients required to attend an AA meeting in the community, told us they no longer were: they shared that they did not feel safe, because too often, they were the only woman in a room full of men. Adding this client requested service, means that we are helping to ensure women required to attend AA meetings are not in jeopardy of experiencing more trauma, of losing custody of their children and/or of relapsing.

Our most recent and greatest accomplishment has been our agency-wide Equity Initiative: a commitment by The Pathfinder Network to advance equity, diversity and inclusion and justice (EDIJ) in all, administrative and program decision making. Last year we participated in a 2-day Equity Training from the Center of Equity and Inclusion in Portland, OR for all staff statewide. We also created an Equity Team of 16 staff that meets monthly. We understand that using a racial equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice lens in all we do is central to our success. Our Equity Team is an essential part of our process to create organizational change. The executive director, program and administrative directors are accountable to the Equity Team, reporting at its monthly meetings on programmatic, administrative, strategic, and financial issues. An important facet of this work is that we actively seek, listen to and implement client feedback into our programs. This step holds us accountable and helps ensure we deliver programs our clients want and need to be successful parents and community members. This work in progress has led to our now developing and using a client-centered model to improve the quality of our services, which will increase client confidence and independence.