Our purpose

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Vision
Communities and churches that open their hearts, their arms, and their doors to persons returning home from prison in ways that encourage and facilitate personal restoration, family reunification, and community reintegration.

History
Faith Unlimited was organized in 1999 and formally incorporated 2002 as a non-profit faith-based organization which has provides support service to ex-offenders and their families. Faith Unlimited was founded by Joseph Nicholson, who helped establish the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Center and directed WMCAC for 25 years. WMCAC has been recognized nationally as a model for excellence in correctional alcohol and drug abuse treatment. Mr. Nicholson has a life-long commitment to work with vulnerable youth and ex-offenders in the greater Springfield area, and founded Faith Unlimited in order to engage people of faith and faith communities in assisting those who have been marginalized by criminal activity and incarceration. Faith Unlimited is a community-based outgrowth of the pioneering work of the After-incarceration Support Program of the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department. Since beginning its work, Faith Unlimited has trained more than 100 mentors, and matched more than 50 in active mentoring relationships with prisoners returning to their communities. Faith Unlimited has also provided family support and facilitated family re-unification for more than 60 families of returning prisoners, as well as ABE and job readiness coaching to more than 40 ex-offenders and vulnerable adolescents & young adults.

Philosophy
The foundation of Faith Unlimited Institute’s work is spiritually, philosophically, and practically grounded in relationship. The mentoring process begins with intentionally meeting someone where they are – literally in prison but also spiritually and psychologically – and continuing to ‘walking the walk’ with them in faith – from prison to home and family, to community, and to self-sufficiency. It is highly congruent with empirically-derived theoretical models of

behavioral change (such as the trans-theoretical ‘stages of change’) that tell us that individuals go through a predictable process of learning, change and growth that can be facilitated by empathic relationship and guidance. This happens with mentors, mentees, and their families, and can be fueled and fostered by the right kind of relationship, support, and guidance.

At the community level, Faith Unlimited Institute also functions as a facilitator of relationship – between churches and corrections, among various prison ministries, and among community agencies and resources that provide essential services and support for ex-offenders, such as housing, education & training, employment, and family support in different communities of Hampden County. Again, it’s approach and its work at the community level is highly congruent with empirically-derived models of community health and community change that tell us the key elements of community problem-solving are facilitating individual empowerment, bridging social ties, and synergism.

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Through these approaches, Faith Unlimited Institute intends to create a process and organization that through which ex-offenders will become the leaders for reentry and after-incarceration support, guiding and driving the organization and the community to help others who are where they’ve been, and becoming examples of what can happen through faith.

Core activities
The core activities of Faith Unlimited Institute are summarized as follows: