ION Overview
650,000 people are released from prisons every year, and most service providers struggle to connect easily and effectively with them. Our pioneering website works like a dating site for reentry. Inmates and returning citizens can search, find relevant matches, and directly message service providers. And service providers find relevant matches and reach out personally and proactively to inmates on their tablets and returning citizens on their smartphones. The Inside Out Network makes it easy to connect so you can focus on changing more lives for the better.
This video gives you a quick overview so you can see how it actually works in real time. We’ll walk through a short user experience twice – to look at it from two very different angles.
To join, simply to go to the home page (insideoutnetwork.net) and register. You can do it in five to ten minutes and be up and running. Here’s a short video that describes how to register if you’re a service provider:
If you’re currently on probation or parole, just sign up and start using the network today. There’s no cost to you – now or ever.
And if you’re a service provider or a prison volunteer/reentry advocate, there’s no charge and no obligation for signing up and becoming part of the network during this phase of rollout. We get that this is something new, and that you probably have questions. Try it free for a year, and, if you want to continue after that, you can subscribe for only $100/year per organization, or only $25/year for an individual volunteer or advocate working in prison ministry or in reentry.
If you have additional questions about bringing the Inside Out Network to your state, or would like a deeper dive and a longer demo of the ION website, just Contact Us.
In the state of Illinois, approximately 30,000 men and women are released from prison yearly. In Arizona, the number is roughly 19,000. Many other states have similarly high numbers of returning citizens. Upon release, they face the harrowing prospect of navigating a challenging reentry process – mostly on their own, in isolation. Compounding the problem of isolation is the problem of invisibility. Because of poor communication, constantly changing service providers, and out-of-date or incomplete information, most returning citizens simply can’t see the path to the help that is out there for them.
It’s important to recognize that the twin evils of isolation and invisibility aren’t simply confined to inmates and returning citizens. They are endemic to the entire system of those who work with prisoners on the inside and with returning citizens on the outside. Much work and ministry is carried on in small, isolated silos, with little to no way to ensure continuity of effort or effectiveness. This silo approach makes cooperation, coordination, and collaboration difficult to achieve. The result is the lack of a visible, seamless path or process for returning citizens to follow when they’re released.
And, once again, compounding the problem of isolation is the problem of invisibility. The truth is, many service agencies and church ministries have created effective and innovative programs, and yet they are struggling or failing for lack of participants. Week after week, life-changing programs go undersubscribed, job-training classes operate at half-capacity, halfway houses have unfilled beds, and ministries are shutting down. Here’s why: They lack an effective way to connect to and communicate with returning citizens in real time. People can’t see each other.
The Inside Out Network (ION) is a growing statewide network of service providers, churches, ministries, volunteers, and advocates who are banding together to offer a better way to help returning citizens navigate reentry. We believe it’s time to stop being invisible and working in isolation, because none of us can make the impact we want to see by continuing to go it on our own.
The ION mobile responsive website is a revolutionary interactive platform and the key meeting place where the power of networking will become real for returning citizens, service providers, individual volunteers, advocates, churches, and even family members. This is much more than a database. It’s an entirely new experience. After creating a personal or organizational profile (inmates will be enrolled and create a personal profile while in prison), users will log in and go to one of three main areas to interact: Search Center, Message Center, and the HUB.
Register today as a returning citizen, service provider, or volunteer/advocate, or login as a guest, to be linked directly with the network of help being offered in your community and beyond.
ION is completely free to inmates, returning citizens, and their families.
All service providers receive a ONE YEAR free trial! Afterwards, it’s only $25/year subscription for individual volunteers/advocates or $100/year for organizations.
The ION website works great on all smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers.