After the Fire is a non profit corporation geared towards helping convicted felons become accustomed to life after prison. The goal of the organization is to assist participants to change negative patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviors that predispose them to negative actions such as drug abuse, criminal activities and anti-social behaviors. After the Fire’s mission comes is three-fold. The first is to provide a range of direct hands-on constituent services including but not limited to counseling and referral on education services and employment. The second is fundamentally directed towards planning and development with an emphasis on business planning and job training. The third area of importance is community relations and advocacy for issues of importance for the community. The program represents an entirely new opportunity to place the heavy emphasis on the period of transition from incarceration to the community. It’s Time to Change is a highly collaborative effort that is geared toward stopping the ever rising number of men and women who are incarcerated and re-incarcerated in the state of Ohio. This is accomplished by reducing the offenders’ likelihood of reoffending and improving their re entry into society and post release success. It’s Time to Change represents an exceptional approach for meeting statutory purposes and requirements. The fundamental purpose in establishing and operating the program is to reduce recidivism of men and women released from participating correctional centers through the development and improvement of the life skills necessary for ex-offenders to reintegrate into society.
The transition stage of the program will have a highly structured treatment approach in which strict community norms govern particular behavior, with a system of rewards and consequences regarding individual behavior, within the community.