Social Services In California
DEAR READERS:
Root & Rebound is a reentry legal advocacy nonprofit. Our approach is based on the idea that attorneys and advocates can transfer powerful legal knowledge and skills to those who are in reentry and otherwise impacted by the criminal justice system, as well as the families, agencies, and communities that support them. With such a severe "justice gap" in our country and only one legal aid attorney for every 8,000 indigent people in California, we aim to create and share reentry legal information and resources that empower people to know their rights and options in reentry, with an educational approach instead of the traditional 1-to-1 client-attorney relationship.
As part of our approach, we produce reentry resources like the Roadmap to Reentry: A California Legal Guide, and other accompanying toolkits; we train community members, currently and formerly incarcerated people, and professionals working with the reentry population on this information; we run our weekly Reentry Legal Hotline (every Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., at 510-279-4662—we accept Collect Calls); and we respond to prison mail from currently incarcerated people looking for information about their rights, options, and supportive services in reentry.
We realize that information about legal issues related to reentry are often accompanied by the need to meet other basic needs post-release as well, things like food, housing, employment, health care and treatment, and other forms of social services support. While Root & Rebound is NOT a social service agency—meaning we do not directly provide housing or jobs—we recognize the importance of making those connections with social services providers in the community and do our absolute best to know which agencies across the state of California are providing supportive social services to people in reentry.
We are constantly discovering new community resources in California, and they are always expanding, diversifying, closing or otherwise changing. Because of this, it was not practical to list every social service agency in our Roadmap to Reentry guide. Instead, we have created a series of county-based template information letters at our office. The information letters are collections of referral lists and flyers, guides produced by other organizations, and directories from county governments, as well as contact information for the organizations we have worked with or trained in the past. We add to these templates when we find new resources and try to check to make sure the contact information is current on a yearly basis—but we do not have the capacity as a legal office to make sure they are 100% up-to-date.
If you would like a social service referral in the community to which you are returning (for example, you are looking for food, housing, employment or workforce development services, public benefits enrollment, health care, reentry support, legal aid services, etc.), OR believe you know of agencies and services that we don’t, please feel free to write Root & Rebound a letter at the following mailing address: 1730 Franklin St., Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94612, or call our Reentry Legal Hotline any Friday, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., at phone number (510) 279-4662 (we accept Collect Calls). You may ask for resources for all counties you are interested in, and we will send you the information that we have in our office. In addition to contacting our office, you can also try some of the following statewide resources listed below for referrals.
Finally, we have listed here some resources that are specific to certain populations, which may be helpful, and which you may write or call us to request.
- 211
- Location: Referral service available in many counties all across California
- Phone: Call 2-1-1 (note: phone service may not be available in all communities yet)
- Website: http://www.211.org
- California RSOL (Reform Sex Offender Laws)
- Contact Person: Janice Bellucci
- Location: ACLU Building, 1313 W. 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017
- Phone: (818) 305-5984
- California RSOL National Hotline (for further information and support): (800) 773-4319. California RSOL Hotline open on the following days and times: Mondays 7:30am-11:30am; Tuesdays 4am-8am; Thursdays 12pm-6pm; Fridays 9am-3pm; Saturdays 6pm-11pm; Sundays: 10am-2pm (all times are PST).
- California Sex Offender Management Board
- 1515 S Street, 212-N
- Sacramento, CA 95811
- Phone: (916) 323-2660
- Transgender, Intersex and Gender Non-Conforming Justice Project
- Physical Address: 1372 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103
- Mailing Address: 1230 Market Street, PMB 705, San Francisco, CA 94102
- You can request the following resources: “Still We Rise Prison Resource Guide” and the “Stiletto Newsletter”
- Alameda County Department of Public Health Headquarters
- Location: 1000 Broadway Suite 500, Oakland, CA 94607
- You can request the following resource: “State of California and National Transgender Resource Guide”
- Transgender Law Center
- Location—SF LGBT Center, 1800 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94102
- Location—National Headquarters: 1629 Telegraph Avenue, Suite 400, Oakland, CA 94612
- Phone: (415) 865-0176 (Dial extension 306)
- Collect phone line for inmates & detainees: (510) 380-8229
- Fax: (877)-847-1278
- Sexual violence crisis hotlines provide crisis counseling, referrals, support and other services to survivors of sexual violence. The following hotlines accept collect calls, including from currently incarcerated people. Please note that phone calls are usually monitored from prisons and jails, so if you are concerned about privacy, you may choose to write these organizations by mail.
- CENTER FOR HEALTH JUSTICE
Address: 900 Avila Street, Suite 102, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Office Phone: (213) 229-0985
Toll-free Hotline: (888) 372-0888
Inmate Health Hotline (accepts Collect Calls): (213) 229-0979
- Hotline, referrals and advocacy in Los Angeles County.
- COACHELLA VALLEY SEXUAL ASSAULT SERVICES
Address: 74333 Hwy 111, Suite 204
Palm Desert, CA 92260
Hotline (accepts Collect Calls): (760) 568-9071
Hotline, legal advocacy, counseling, and referrals in Coachella Valley.
- JUSTICE NOW
Address: 1322 Webster Street, Suite 210
Oakland, CA 94612
Office Phone: (510) 839-7654 (accepts collect)
Advocacy for compassionate release for women.
- NORTH COAST RAPE CRISIS TEAM
- Address: P.O. Box 1082, Crescent City, CA 95531
- Office Phone: (707) 465-6961
- 24-hour Hotline (accepts Collect Calls):
(707) 465-2851
- RESOURCE CENTER FOR SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND FAMILY VIOLENCE
Address: 259 N. Blackstone Avenue, Fresno, CA 93701
Office Phone: (559) 497-2900
24-hour hotline (accepts Collect calls during business hours): (559) 222-7273
Hotline, advocacy and referrals in Fresno County.
- RISE
Address: 51 Zaca Lane, Suite 140, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Office Phone: (805) 545-8888
24-hour toll-free Hotline (accepts Collect calls): (800) 656-4673
Hotline, advocacy and referrals in San Luis Obispo County.
WOMEN’S CENTER OF SAN JOAQUIN
Address: 620 North San Joaquin Street, Stockton, CA 95202
Office Phone: (209) 941-2611
24-hour Hotline (accepts Collect Calls): (209) 465-4997
Hotline, referral and advocacy in San Joaquin County.
YWCA OF SILICON VALLEY
Address: 375 South Third St., San Jose, CA 95112:
Office Phone: (408) 295-4011
24-hour Hotline (accepts Collect Calls): (408) 287-3000 or (650) 493-7273
Hotline, referral and advocacy, serving from Palo Alto to San Jose.