Bianca van Heydoorn and Aviva Tevah Appointed to City’s New Office of Reentry Partnerships
Sabrina Vourvoulias - August 19, 2019
"Bianca van Heydoorn, until recently part of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University, and Aviva Tevah, from the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition, will serve as senior director and director of policy and planning, respectively, for a newly created Office of Reentry Partnerships.
Mayor Jim Kenney made the announcement today, saying the new office will be responsible for the development of a comprehensive reentry strategy for the city of Philadelphia. It will consolidate staff from the Office of Re-Integration Services (RISE) and Office of Criminal Justice (OCJ) into one central team.
According to the statement released by the city, the new office will:
Set a clear vision and direction for a measurable citywide approach to improving reentry outcomes
Drive and sustain an unprecedented level of coordination between the local government, other government partners, service providers, education and training programs, employers, and community members
Ensure that City reentry initiatives are research- and data-driven
Before becoming the director of community engagement and research application at Temple, van Heydoorn served as the director of educational initiatives at the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. van Heydoorn has served as a consultant for New York City Department of Corrections, the City and State University systems of New York, and for the Obama Administration’s Second Chance Pell and Beyond the Box initiatives, and her writing has been featured in the Journal on Ethnicity in Criminal Justice.
In addition to her work at the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition, Tevah’s previous experience includes work as a transition data project consultant for the New York City Department of Education; New York reentry education network coordinator for Center for Institutional and Social Change; and program analyst and Rikers Island recruitment coordinator for Getting Out and Staying Out, among other positions."
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