A trimester pregnant woman holding her stomach.

Stella is Drug-Free and Employed, Thanks in Part to an Innovative Partnership

Public Sector Solutions, Public Safety & Reentry

IMPACT

Helping a new mother in Ventura County, California achieve stability

In 2016, Stella was actively using drugs, had recently lost her job, and was experiencing homelessness when she became involved with the criminal legal system. She was also navigating the early stages of pregnancy and a difficult relationship.

Faced with these overwhelming obstacles, Stella sought help from her probation officer, who connected her with Interface Children & Family Services—a California-based nonprofit service provider dedicated to promoting family stability and economic opportunity for those on formal probation. Thanks to an innovative partnership between Interface, Ventura County, CA, and Social Finance called the Ventura Project to Support Reentry, Interface was able to provide supportive services to adults on formal probation in Ventura County.

Stella’s Interface case manager traveled to the homeless encampment where she lived to develop her individualized case plan. With the support of her case manager, Stella ended her abusive relationship, entered supportive housing for pregnant women, and continued with the therapies in her case plan. She also accessed long-term supportive housing, employment and relationship counseling, and critical benefits that enabled her to afford supplies for her soon-to-arrive infant. By the end of her probation, she was drug-free, employed, and a loving mother to a new baby.

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