Inside CDCR Video, Rehabilitation

FCRP partners with Good Samaritan Training Center

FCRP-Stockton participant volunteer gives a dog some water at the Good Samaritan Training Center.

Female Community Reentry Program (FCRP) Stockton participants are learning job skills while helping the less fortunate at the Good Samaritan Training Center.

The participants in the FCRP are nearing the end of their sentences. While they serve the remainder of their time in the reentry program, they are learning how to reintegrate into their communities.

Thanks to the partnership with the Good Samaritan Training Center, FCRP participants are getting an opportunity to learn while being of service to others.

Watch the video (story continues below):

“FCRP-Stockton has been partnering with Good Samaritan since the inception of the program,” said Terren Hinojosa, correctional counselor III (CCIII). “This is one of the primary places (where) they volunteer.”

A correctional counselor.
Terren Hinojosa, CCIII

According to David Coloxton, executive director of Good Samaritan, it’s all about second chances.

“They are actively involved in the Second Chance Thrift Store, for the most part,” Coloxton said. “(Volunteers) determine usable clothes or clean and mended clothes for homeless families. They greet people with a smile and a positive attitude.”

Helen C., one of the FCRP volunteers, had good things to say about the organization.

“The staff over there, they are wonderful,” she said. “The program helps me get ready for the free world (such as) dealing with regular people. It’s a job and it helps me grow.”

Hinojosa said the FCRP volunteers say they enjoy their work with the thrift store.

“For our participants who come in and volunteer, they say it makes them feel good. (They are doing) something to help someone else (that is) not necessarily to benefit themselves,” she said.

Good Samaritan executive director David Coloxton.
David Coloxton

Coloxton said much like the store’s name, second chances are for the people they serve as well as the FCRP volunteers.

“No body wants to go backwards,” he said. “So, to go forward, you’ve got to step in that direction (and) change. Make positive changes.”

Video by the Division of Rehabilitative Programs
Story by Don Chaddock, Inside CDCR editor

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