The Interfaith Coalition of Advocates for Reentry and Employment (ICARE) was founded in October 2004 to organize a religious response to the crisis of recidivism in New York State. In the Restorative Justice tradition, people of faith affirm the intellectual and spiritual capacity of persons with criminal convictions, believing in the potential for rehabilitation and reconciliation. ICARE's commitment to Restorative Justice further takes into account the "Restoration of Rights" for formerly incarcerated persons. ICARE is advocating for the removal of barriers encountered by people reentering the community after prison. The ICARE coalition consists of communities of faith, direct service providers, and policy organizations. To learn more about the context for ICARE's "Restoration of Rights" platform, please visit our "Serving Another Sentence" page.

The scope of our work is to:
(1) Educate members of congregations about incarceration and reentry barriers, and assist them in initiating prison and reentry ministries;
(2) Expand a coalition of faith communities, direct service providers, policy organizations, and regional denominational institutions to develop in a closely-knit network of advocates;
(3) Develop model statutes to remove barriers to reentry;
(4) Develop a model reentry ministry program to assist formerly incarcerated men and women;
(5) Organize faith leaders to advocate for the rights of individuals with criminal convictions.