Youth Leadership Program

This comprehensive 7-year prevention program targets at risk youth that have leadership potential as identified by their 5th grade school counselors. Students remain in the program until high school graduation. YLP offers opportunities to develop skills needed to succeed. This is accomplished through:

Weed and Seed

Operation Weed and Seed is foremost a strategy –rather than a program– which aims to prevent, control and reduce violent crime, drug abuse, and gang activity in these Cedar Rapids areas:

Moundview Taylor
Wellington Heights Northwest Area
Oakhill Jackson

The strategy involves a two-pronged approach:

  1. law enforcement agencies and prosecutors cooperating in “weeding out” criminals who participate in violent crime and drug abuse and preventing their return to these areas;
  1. and “seeding” the area with human services that encompass prevention, intervention, treatment, and neighborhood revitalization.

Partnership for Safe Families

Partnership for Safe Families (PSF) is a community wide effort in Linn County to support families and prevent child abuse/neglect and domestic violence. PSF brings families, neighbors, and professionals together to solve family problems, identify family strengths, and prevent family violence. Partnership for Safe Families is a collaboration between many public and private agencies, as well as other professionals and trained volunteers to link families to community resources.

Foster Grandparent Program

As part of the national Senior Corps program, CCIA is sponsoring the Foster Grandparent Program in Linn and Johnson Counties. Seniors earning $11,965 or less are eligible and receive a small stipend for volunteering an average of 20 hours/week to assist youth in need. It is a win-win as it enriches the lives of the low income senior volunteers and the special needs children served, while non-profit agencies get needed assistance.

“Home to Stay”

CCIA is developing “Home to Stay”, a 24-unit supportive housing complex targeting families who have a member re-entering the community from a correctional facility, or with a criminal record that excludes them from other low-income housing. Six apartments will be set-aside for families who have a member with a disability.

Faith Based Initiative

The faith-based community has a long history of aiding people in need. CCIA has succeeded in collaborating with the faith community for volunteer involvement in restorative mentoring practices designed to assist victims of crime, offenders re-entering their communities, offenders' families, and engage in community capacity building activities.

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) centers are located in four Cedar Rapids neighborhood resource centers created through the Weed and Seed program. VITA offers free tax preparation to families who qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The EITC is a valuable, but complex, tax benefit. Though it is the federal government’s largest program benefiting working families, as many as 20% of eligible families don’t claim the credit. In 2007, there were four sites that served 334 taxpayers with federal returns of over $424,000

Volunteers in Service to America

As part of the Corporation for National and Community Service AmeriCorps program, Volunteers in Service to America, or VISTA, places individuals with community-based agencies to help find long-term solutions to the problems caused by urban and rural poverty. CCIA’s volunteers are working in the Weed and Seed neighborhoods to create and expand resource centers, promote financial management/literacy, and revitalize the neighborhood. They also work on prison re-entry issues with the Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services.

Children of Promise Mentoring Program

The mission of this program is to connect children of incarcerated parents who attend Johnson Elementary School with a pro-social caring adult mentor. The program targets those between the ages of 6-12 (and their siblings ages 4-15). Through these mentoring relationships we seek to increase the likelihood of regular school attendance and academic achievement, while decreasing self-destructive and violent behavior.

Peer Review Court

This voluntary diversion program is an alternative to traditional juvenile justice and is offered to youth who have committed misdemeanor offenses. Youth are eligible through an admission of guilt at the Magistrate Court, or Juvenile Court Services intake, and are then given a disposition by a jury of their peers. If the youth successfully completes the terms of the disposition assigned by the Peer Court jury, the court record is closed. Program benefits include education, reduced recidivism, accountability, and restorative justice.

Reality Alcohol Prevention Program

Focusing on ages 16-25, the Reality Alcohol Prevention Program (RAPP) intends to deal more effectively with the problem of young persons driving under the influence of alcohol or other addictive, mind altering drugs. RAPP incorporates reality-based education experiences to affect participants’ decision to repeat the offense.

Circles of Support and Accountability

This project seeks to reduce the risk of new offense by engaging supervised offenders in the community and opening an avenue for restoration and healing for people impacted by crime. Circle members and the offender enter a covenant to work together to provide support and accountability and to pursue an action plan that moves towards accountability, healing and responsible living.

Victim Services

Victim Services give survivors of crime a voice in the criminal justice system. The Victim Advisory Board’s mission is to create a seamless system of support and services for victims by raising funds to support victim’s unmet financial needs. Victim Impact Panels offer members the opportunity to share their tragedy with offenders, schools, and other agencies to help call attention to the harm caused by crime and ways to help repair it.

Batterer’s Education Program

This education-based program is designed to hold participants accountable for abusive and controlling actions. Batterer’s Education Program (BEP) provides offenders with non-violent, non-controlling behavioral alternatives to help them break the cycle of violence.

Project Safe Neighborhoods

CCIA is part of this national comprehensive, strategic approach to reducing gun crime in America. By linking together federal, state, and local law enforcement, prosecutors, and community leaders, PSN provides a multifaceted approach to deterring and punishing gun crime. One area of focus in our community is presenting the message of gun safety and having youth sign a pledge against gun violence.

Adult Mentoring Program

The Adult Mentoring Program seeks volunteers from the community to provide support to offenders by encouraging positive relationships, law-abiding values, and a strong sense of hope. During their transition from the criminal justice system to community life, offenders can often feel overwhelmed by both large and small problems. We embrace the idea of personal accountability with a plan for change is the pivotal focus of community supervision.