Victims’ Healing and Recovery Program
The goals of the Victims’ Healing and Recovery Program were to increase access to a seamless continuum of evidence-based healing services; promote trauma resolution and recovery; and reduce incidents of repeat or ongoing victimization, and/or retributive violence. The target population for this project was boys and men of color (and their families) who were previously incarcerated or otherwise involved with the criminal justice system, and who are victims of gun violence. This project engaged in information sharing across criminal justice system partners; pro-active family-inclusive outreach to victims and families in target population; peer-to-peer support; a holistic, individualized and family-inclusive healing and recovery plan with access to appropriate and necessary services; and viable and realistic non-violent lifestyle opportunities and stabilization services. The project partnered with the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission to share crime, demographic and contact information for victims with the Alma Center on a bi-weekly basis. Additional collaborators included the Milwaukee Police Department; WI Department of Corrections-Community Corrections; the Milwaukee District Attorney; the U.S. Attorney’s Office; City of Milwaukee Office of Violence Prevention; Employ Milwaukee; and Aurora Health Care.
Grantee Organization
The Alma Center
The Alma Center, Inc. is a national nonprofit community-based agency in Milwaukee, WI, founded in 2004 as an evidence-based trauma-informed alternative to prevailing punitive methods of working with men in the criminal justice system.
The Alma Center works to heal, transform and evolve the unresolved pain of trauma that fuels the continuation of cycles of violence, abuse and dysfunction in families and community. The Alma Center works primarily with men at-risk or involved in the criminal justice system, with a particular focus on men who have a history of domestic violence. Their vision is that healing-focused care becomes a leading approach for re-imagining the criminal justice system, particularly in regards to intervention and prevention of family violence, and moves the system toward more restorative and effective models.
The Alma Center works locally and nationally to provide pioneering trauma-informed healing, education, supportive services and a positive peer community to promote lifestyle transformation for men and to break the cycle of domestic violence in families.