Many institutions are now dealing with federal funding cuts. The executive director of a reentry program that helps women transition to life outside of prison gives a glimpse at what it looks like to continue services after losing funding.
People leaving jail face obstacles like finding transportation, housing, and accessing basic necessities. Elizabeth Siegelman is the executive director of the Center for Alternatives in Community Justice. It connects women leaving the Centre County Correctional Facility to community resources and gives them the tools to reintegrate into society. The Center for Alternatives in Community Justice provides weekly group counseling and peer support while the women are in jail, and backpacks full of essentials and help with transportation as they leave.
"So, the first 72 hours after release are really critical for maintaining sobriety, having a safe place to land, because it’s really an overwhelming experience to have freedom and choice when you’re used to not having it,” Siegelman said.
A grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency that helped fund Siegelman’s work expired last year. At the federal level, the Trump administration has frozen other grants they used to receive. She’s continued the counseling, but to pay for the parts of the reentry work that cost money, Siegelman has had to find new funding sources. Like a $600 grant from the State College Rotary.
"I'm just applying for smaller grants in order to provide tangible things like the backpacks, clothing, bills here and there, paying for storage units and things like that," Siegelman said.
But without those state and federal grants, it’s getting harder to meet everyone’s needs.