‘Game-Changing’ Program Gives New Start to Formerly Incarcerated Delawareans

Congratulations to the newest graduates of the New Start Reentry Program, an initiative of ChristianaCare community partners Project New Start, Inc. This community organization assists people with the transition from incarceration to the community. Project New Start has received funding from ChristianaCare’s Community Investment Fund since its first awards in 2019.

“In Project New Start, 50% of the participants have no high school diploma or GED, very few have any formal work experience, and 95% are housing insecure,” said Priscilla Turgon, founder and executive director.

“You can’t work if you don’t know where you’re going to sleep at night. The grants we received from ChristianaCare have been game changers.”

“The grants we received from ChristianaCare have been game changers.” – Priscilla Turgon, Project New Start

Bettina Riveros, chief health equity officer for ChristianaCare, congratulated the Project Reentry graduates at their ceremony at Widener University Delaware Law School. “My message here is, we’re here to serve you,” she said. “We are there for you. Let’s be stronger together.”

Turgon said ChristianaCare has addressed social drivers of health for Project New Start participants with:

• Funding to address housing and food insecurity.
• Narcan and Narcan training through Community SOS, a partnership between ChristianaCare and New Castle County to prevent substance overdose.
• Healthy cooking lessons from the Delaware Food Farmacy team using air fryers purchased with ChristianaCare funding. The Food Farmacy is a ChristianaCare partnership with Lutheran Community Services.
• Stop the Bleed training for bleeding intervention from ChristianaCare’s Injury Prevention program.
• The “Wise Guys” program for pregnancy prevention through ChristianaCare’s Alliance for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention.

“We’re honored to have ChristianaCare embedded in the curriculum,” Turgon said.

This is the 11^th year of the highly successful Reentry Program. Since 2013, 135 participants have completed the program. Of those, 90% are currently working and 80% of the graduates have not reoffended, more than triple the national average, said Turgon.