Our Foundation
Spending years in prison changes your habits, perceptions, and socialization, and it also changes the way you are perceived by others. The emotional impacts of prison can continue for years after release, and are compounded by the stigma assigned to formerly incarcerated people by neighbors, employers, landlords, and even family members.
Creating stability is a lifelong challenge. We aim to help our beneficiaries create that stability and so much more, so they can make long term connections within their communities and truly feel at home in the world.
Philosophy
We believe restoration is possible, and that paths to complete restoration should exist for people when they return to their communities.
Vision
Bonafide envisions a world in which people recovering from incarceration can pursue the same opportunities and quality of life as those who have never lost their freedom.
Mission
It is our Mission to ensure that people affected by incarceration have the material, emotional, and advocacy support they need to both integrate into society and build healthy, productive lives going forward.
Our Motivation
“As a formerly incarcerated person, I have personally experienced the transition from prison to the outside community, and know that a smooth, healthy reintegration is impossible without a good support system during this most surreal, impactful, and even traumatic time. This is why I started Bonafide. I’m very uncomfortable with people being completely lost in the world when they are suddenly released after decades of incarceration — they are at such a huge disadvantage when it even comes to functioning in a modern society.”
— David Cowan, Executive Director
What Makes Bonafide Different
The vast majority of traditional reentry and reintegration work is focused on short-term support – corrective and controlled – functioning almost as an extension of the carceral state. The focus of many programs is to keep people from failing utterly: to prevent them from relapsing or returning to prison.
In contrast, Bonafide is concerned with creating pathways and opportunities that lead to flourishing. Instead of focusing on mitigating failures in the short term, we lead people along the path of success for a lifetime, as they build lives they love. Each day can bring problems of any size, but by nurturing the skills, confidence, resources, and support network needed to meet these challenges and take them in stride, our beneficiaries become wholly reintegrated.
We describe ourselves as a community rather than a service provider because the process of rebuilding a life is the process of building community.
