About CPA
Life In the System to Life In the Community
On the front lines, Community Partners in Action supports the transition from life in the system to life in the community. Our model for impact blends direct services, community action and restorative justice advocacy. Our programs offer essential services including transitional housing, reentry and resettlement support, workforce development and coaching, as well as partnerships with mental health and addiction services.
We are community leaders in Greater Hartford, Greater Waterbury and other cities and towns in Connecticut. We help bring together nonprofits, city departments, state agencies and other partners to ensure all the needs of people in our care are met. Together, we are helping people discover new pathways in life.
We are among the leading advocates in Connecticut in the fight for restorative justice. Over the past decade, we’ve partnered to make important gains toward ending mass incarceration in Connecticut. There is still much to do to right the wrongs of the past and create new futures for so many denied their fair opportunities to flourish.
Our Mission
Community Partners in Action is a non-profit agency building community by providing services that promote accountability, dignity and restoration for people affected by the criminal justice system.
Our History
In March 1875, the Prisoners’ Friends’ Society was organized in Hartford, Connecticut, established to reach out to the poor and disenfranchised. The following year, the organization was renamed the CT Prison Association. Nationally, Connecticut was the fifth state in which an association was founded specifically to provide services to people who are in prison.
The original articles of association contained five goals:
- benefit society by the reformation of criminals
- assist prisoners to self-reform
- promote reformatory systems of prison management
- aid discharged convicts in living honorably
- cooperate in the repression of crime
Today, the CT Prison Association lives on as Community Partners in Action. No other criminal justice agency in Connecticut can offer the same lengthy record of achievements.
For generations, CPA has met challenges facing people reentering society, expanding far beyond its original charter.
Flexibility and adaptability have been bywords of the agency in each decade. When new policies were needed, CPA has either written legislation or supported bills written by others to move the state forward. When programs were needed to assist people in prison, CPA was the first to discern how best to respond, or collaborate with other agencies to develop a range of services.
Community Partners in Action believes that people can change, and that those labeled by society, despite the odds against them, can change for the better. Our experience working with thousands of people, year after year, has confirmed that belief.