Providing Friends Outside
Services in the Community:

GETTING STARTED

Friends Outside has chapters and affiliates in several locations, providing programs and services at the community level.  Some chapters are independently incorporated; some affiliates are collaborations with faith-based organizations; and all use both paid staff and volunteers to provide assistance.

If you or your organization is thinking about providing Friends Outside services and programs to incarcerated people and their families at the community level, the following may be helpful:

• Identify like-minded people (between 2 and 10) in the community who may be interested in the same goals:  helping people who are dealing with the effects of incarceration.

• Arrange a meeting to discuss ideas and possibilities. A representative of Friends Outside would be pleased to attend this meeting, if possible.
• Identify an “umbrella” organization in the community. This could be a volunteer center, a nonprofit service provider, a church or other faith-based organization.  Through discussion, determine what assistance the “umbrella” can provide:  for instance, office space, phone, copier use,  volunteers,  office supplies, meeting space, bookkeeping for donations)

• Establish an “advisory group”. This is not a group of volunteers who will be providing services, but rather people from the community who have contacts and resources, knowledge and information that could be helpful in getting started.  (For example, a judge, the Sheriff,  Chief Probation Officer, local clergy, Volunteer Center Director, other key people)
• Determine what services you want to provide, and to whom.  New Friends Outside groups sometimes begin with one or more of the following:

For families:
Emergency food, clothing, household goods        
Referral for legal information
Referrals for local assistance            
Mentoring
Recreational activities for children of inmates     
Explain court proceedings
Holiday celebrations for families                 
Job placement referrals
Peer counseling (individually)              
Networking
Peer counseling (group; wives, grandparents)
Assistance with transportation

For incarcerated people:
Visits in jail                        
Referral for help with family problems
Peer counseling                  
Communicating with family and others
Resources and Referrals               
Pastoral counseling
Books

For people just released from jail:
Use of phone, phonebook, daily newspaper
Local referrals
Bus passes
Clothing for work, job interviews, inclement weather
Emergency food
Referrals for emergency shelter

A word about the philosophy of Friends Outside:

• We believe that sometimes people need to be helped to help themselves. 
• We believe in the abiding capacity of human beings to have hope; to do the right thing; and to turn adversity into opportunity.
• We believe that the best way to help someone who is down is to allow them the opportunity to help someone else.

Members of the Friends Outside Network:
Friends Outside in Los Angeles
Friends Outside in San Bernardino County
Friends Outside in Santa Clara County
Friends Outside in Stanislaus County
Friends Outside in Contra Costa County
Friends Outside in Sonoma County
Friends Outside/St. Vincent de Paul (Orange County)
Friends Outside/The Volunteer Center (Santa Cruz County)           

Statewide in California:
Offices in 33 state prisons, providing direct services to inmates
Visitor Centers at 30 prison locations, providing direct services to families

Further Information:
Gretchen Newby, M.A
Executive Director
209-955-0701
gnewby@friendsoutside.org
PO Box 4085
Stockton, CA 95204