Gemeinschaft Home

Although Gemeinschaft Home is unable to control the treatment of individuals who are currently incarcerated, the organization hopes to provide a safe and nurturing environment to allow program participants to focus on their own development. The various programs offer different strategies and interventions, but they share the common aims of providing positive community responses to their efforts, encouraging healthy transitional behaviors, and facilitating connections to external resources and opportunities. More specifically, Gemeinschaft Home is in the process of growing and developing to allow for a greater number of interventions. Examples of this growth include the recent establishment of the Day Reporting Center, the additional buildings on the organization property, and the collaborations between local institutions of higher learning and the residents. Gemeinschaft Home has goals for the future to achieve an even greater impact that include establishing a women's transitional home.
A larger goal of the organization is to break the cycles of recidivism. Gemeinschaft Home's approach to this large undertaking is to address and reduce the behaviors and social tendencies that can lead to actions that in turn can lead to recidivism. Residents can share firsthand about the ability of incarcerated individuals to develop new, unhealthy behaviors while incarcerated. While incarcerated, previous unhealthy behaviors may lie dormant within individuals until their release allows for a full rebound into those patterns. Gemeinschaft Home provides high expectations with personalized approaches and interventions in order to meet each individual's definition of success.
An aim held by the people of Gemeinschaft Home that is somewhat more difficult to measure than increased programs and service beneficiaries is a more positive community perception of the organization and the program participants themselves. Past experiences of the organization combine with prominent values within the community to reveal the need for heightened transparency, clearer communication methods, and shareable materials to allow individuals to inform themselves at their own pace about the organization. Not only will a more positive community perception allow Gemeinschaft's residents and clients to more successfully transition into jobs and other productive areas in the community, but it would also allow for more volunteers, interns, and engaged community members to help the organization meet its other goals with valued perspectives and insight.

Gemeinschaft Home's variety of programs often do not allow for thorough explanations of its activities in short organizational descriptions. However, some detail is needed here to discuss specific intervention methods that allow the organization to make progress towards, or completely meet, its goals.
The residential program meets the basic needs of the residents, including food, shelter, clothing, and a vital sense of safety. When approaching residents' circumstances from a perspective similar to that of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it is unfortunately obvious that human beings are not able to focus on broader goals like personal betterment when faced with threats to their immediate safety and well-being. The rules of the house currently in place emphasize personal contributions to the house community and responsible money management in order to promote a secure home environment for residents. Group sessions are offered regularly, with some required, to ensure progress towards healthy behavioral patterns. This leads to a focus on the programming aspect of the organization.
What separates Gemeinschaft Home from the traditional “transitional house" is its established therapeutic community. Residents participate in both individual and group counseling, in an environment that offers a healthy and appropriate level of separation from the rest of the community. Critical thinking and personal reflection are often luxuries unaffordable by individuals not given the space, time, and support that are necessary for those processes. The house and its programs provide all of those things in the hope that residents will take full advantage of the resources. Experiences including and beyond what individuals endure during incarceration demand appropriate tools and processing in order to prevent behaviors that could lead to further incarceration.
In addition to offering the chance for internal reflection and personal growth, the programs of Gemeinschaft Home offer positive alternatives to other options, including homeless shelters, recidivism, jail, and dangerous home environments. Family and support networks can be invaluable resources to individuals experiencing some path of incarceration, but the environments in which those families are located can often play major roles in whether or not that individual returns to prison. Lacking resources and information for individuals close to someone who has experienced incarceration can result in an overabundance of support or not enough. Gemeinschaft offers needed support while ensuring options for future self-sustainability.

Gemeinschaft Home has been a part of the local Harrisonburg community for over thirty years. The organization's sources of funding and programs have certainly shifted over the years, but the community presence has been consistent. The organization has been growing rapidly in the past five to ten years, resulting in consistent funding from the Virginia Department of Corrections, high amounts of referrals from correctional facilities, and new programs. The consistent support and presence of the organization have allowed a major department like the DOC to feel secure in funding the Day Reporting Center.
In addition to reliable funding and new programs, there are other signs of Gemeinschaft Home's credibility. Examples include an increase in the number of residents the organization is able to serve and the constant waiting list for individuals who desire to participate in one of the organization's programs. This waiting list speaks to the organization's significant need throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia for a variety of individuals. A more informal but vital essence of the organization is its reputation with these individuals and the larger bodies who refer them to Gemeinschaft Home. The idea that sustainable characteristics like funding are only part of creating a successful therapeutic community is not lost within Gemeinschaft Home, and our residents and program participants can certainly speak to this both directly and indirectly.

Although evident in the discussions of our goals, progress markers, and other fields, Gemeinschaft Home's growth in size, participants, and programs has really characterized the organization for the last five to ten years. The number of residents has increased from approximately twenty to forty-two. The number of programs has expanded the organization from a solely residential focus to a diverse organization that includes a Day Reporting Center (DRC). The DRC is a new program that operates on a $385,000 contract from the Department of Corrections (DOC). This program responded to the overcrowding of local jails and met the needs of first-time, non-violent offenders. Without the DRC, these individuals could potentially lose custody of their children, current employment, and other vital arrangements that only add to the individuals' contributions to the local community.
Through our constant efforts to gain more positive perceptions within the community, Gemeinschaft Home has addressed the issue of stigma. Perceived stigma has been proven to negatively affect individuals' social, economic, and emotional transitions into society. In response to this issue, we have collaborated with James Madison University to create musical projects that were shared with the community through a public concert. Gemeinschaft Home also collaborated with a grantwriting class at James Madison University to fund a new College Outreach Program that will introduce our population to four local universities and encourage student involvement. Efforts like these allow individuals who may form biases off of misinformation to gather personal experience with this population. In response, our program participants feel more supported by the community.
The most current accomplishment is still in progress. Gemeinschaft Home partnered with Strength in Peers, a local nonprofit organization of people who have lived-in experience recovering from mental health challenges and/or substance abuse. We are working to fund a similar residential program for women, which is a significant need within the entire state. The collaboration and connections made from this partnership are invaluable and will prove to be sustainable beyond the process of forming this program.