Mandate and Program

 

Essential Role

United Church Halfway Homes, Inc. is an integral part of the criminal justice system, dedicated to providing residential and community programming to offenders transitioning back into the wider community. With the provision of essential resources and skills, residents reduce their risk of re-offending and the quality of life for them, their families and the community is enhanced.

UCHH provides assistance to both women and men on Parole, Statutory Release or Probation, in their transition from prison to independent community living. Each of our three homes is staffed 24 hours a day. (For a full description of each House, look under the “Our Homes” tab in the bar above.)

UCHH programs are managed and operated in accordance with standards established by our contractors, including Correctional Services Canada (CSC) and the Province of Manitoba. The United Church Halfway Homes Inc. is a private, non-profit entity (Read about Our Mission) whose objective is to facilitate re-entry opportunities for former offenders from highly structured confined custody to community living.  This objective is acheived through:

  • Provision of a safe, secure and stable environment;
  • Assistance for residents to realize their correctional and educational plans, thereby reducing their risk for re-offending;
  • Directed support and opportunities for involvement in a wide range of positive and pro-social, personal, recreational, cultural and spiritual activities;
  • Proactively communicating, interacting and intervening amongst staff and all residents for the purposes of affecting positive behavioral changes.

Programs

UCHH programs incorporate evidence based practices to reduce the risk of re-offending by addressing the criminogenic risks and needs of each offender within a multi-modal construct. UCHH works collaboratively with the resident, his/her supports and community as well as with other agencies that can provide resources to aid the resident in developing the skills to enhance their transition.

The agency delivers the following programs to achieve its mandate:

Residential Services at 3 Homes

Dominion House: with ten bed capacity, providing services to male offenders with a range of risks and needs

Dorchester House: with ten bed capacity, providing services to male residents with Axis One mental health diagnosis as well as concurrent disorders

McMillan House: with eight bed capacity, providing gender responsive programming to women offenders

Community Services

Reintegration Support Unit: under contract to CSC, this program provides an additional level of supervision and directed support to parolees in the community.

Transitional support is available to all residents following the completion of the residential component. This is voluntary and may be accessed at any time.

Eligibility

In addition to individuals on Day Parole, Full Parole, Statutory Release, and Probation appropriate referrals will be accepted from provincial agencies such as the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Manitoba Family Services & Housing. All referrals are screened by the respective House Managers. For more, see Admission

All of our residents must be able to climb stairs.