Vision On Mission has developed a highly specialized Reintegration programme for its clients, to address and see them through their reintegration into society which consists of three (3) phases.

The purpose of the In-Transit Reintegration Facilities is to allow clients to begin the process of reintegration into society, while still subjected to evaluation, monitoring, supervision, care and support. This contributes to the reduction of recidivism or reoffending when compared to those released directly into society. Research has shown that offenders directly released into society are six (6) times more likely to re-offend within three (3) years of release than those who are discharged into the care of a reintegration centre/facility.

Vision On Mission In-transit Facilities are meant solely for the reintegration of ex-offenders, deportees returning to Trinidad and Tobago, and the socially displaced. They are voluntary-based residences where admitted residents must be self-motivated and committed to changing their lifestyle.

What must be noted, is the fact that participants in the programme are exposed to key developmental training and real-life experiences, such as financial literacy, which prepares them for independent living. Each of these developmental phases is covered in the listed facilities below: Wallerfield, Champs Fleur, ‘Star of Hope’ Women Facility and Laventille.

This facility located at Wallerfield in East Trinidad is the beginning phase for the Reintegration programme developed by Vision On Mission. Up to 100 male residents could be housed there for a period of six to 12 months at a time.

The clients will be offered the opportunity to increase their marketability through a traditional accountability plan, through exposure to personal and life skills training, through competency training in agriculture which will include hydroponics and agro-processing, as well as access to other social reintegration services.

Another strategic element to this programme is that it aims to deinstitutionalize the clients through the creation of a Healing Social Environment while exposing them to multiple activities that closely resemble those in regular social life. Clients are encouraged to do meaningful introspection in a space that is clean, green and serene. This is a type of natural therapeutic experience which acts as a deterrent to crime while engendering public safety within communities.

The intermediary phase of the Reintegration Programme is located at the Champ Fleur facility. This is also a male In-transit facility which caters to the needs of ex-offenders, deportees, delinquent youth and the socially displaced. 

Clients are assessed and admitted at this stage through the Vision On Mission head office at San Juan. In this phase, clients housed here are gainfully employed and are participants of the Money Management Programme. They would have adopted the habit of saving so that they can eventually move on into independent living.

The residents at Champ Fleur are expected to be at the facility for approximately 12 months where they would be exposed to counselling, coaching and mentoring, as well as work ethics development.

It must be noted though, that it was the Champ Fleur facility that played a key role in the development of the Reintegration Programme back in 2003 when it served as the house that became a home for two ex-offenders who needed a place to stay.

No fewer than 1000 reformed men have gone through the programme at Champ Fleur since.

Vision On Mission (VOM) over time has observed that women who were ex-offenders, deportees, and others made vulnerable through circumstances beyond their control were in special need of services that should be tailored to their circumstances.

VOM acquired a property located at Forrest Park, Claxton Bay, in September 2012 to meet the demand and proceeded to work assiduously to obtain financial support for the renovation and construction of said property.

It is a two-story residential facility for women with nine rooms and has the capacity to house as many as 60 women at one time, annually. This is the only facility of its kind in the Caribbean that will provide the necessary support, programmes, and services to meet the unique needs of these women, in order to successfully reintegrate them into the community upon their release from prison and other vulnerable situations that they would have come from.

Residents will be offered programmes such as counselling, cooking, etiquette training, work ethics, coaching, mentoring, small-scale agriculture training, and much more. They will also receive support such as clothing, meals, work gear and financial assistance in the first month of employment, to name a few.

A time-frame of 6-12 months of housing and services would be made available in the initial instance. Residents would also be continuously assessed by Caseworkers on an on-going basis to ensure that their needs at any point in time are addressed, in support of their successful completion of the programme.

Once these clients complete VOM’s programme and are able to demonstrate their growth, and are self-reliant, they will “graduate” out of the programme and transit into independent living.

As such, Vision On Mission is extremely pleased to announce that we are providing a new facility to accommodate these female clients. There is a target date for the completion in the first quarter of 2019.

Both Vision On Mission Caseworkers and clients complained in the past about the tremendous distress experienced by clients after they completed the residential care segment of the programme when seeking somewhere to rent/live. VOM’s solution to that problem was the ‘Starter House’ Rental Programme. This unique initiative is located in Laventille and consists of nine apartments.

The ‘Starter House’ allow those clients who are ready to exit VOM’s Reintegration Programme additional support of rental facilities, in the form of a self-contained room at a reduced cost when compared to regular rental on the existing real estate market.

This rental facility is available to those clients that are about to enter their final phase of the Reintegration Programme and they are allowed to live there for a 12 to 24 month timeframe.

Reduced-market rate rents provide the clients with a jump-start to independent living so they are able to further save to obtain their own apartment after they would have moved on from the VOM programme, as well as fulfilled their allotted time at the ‘Starter House’ facility at Laventille.

The main focus at this phase is that the clients now aim for independent living. Once clients get to this stage in the programme, they are equipped through their acquired skills and employment readiness, to ‘graduate’ to their re-entry into society.

The Laventille ‘Starter House’ rental facility is the final phase of the Vision On Mission Reintegration Programme.