Operation New Hope is a Florida-based nonprofit, founded in 1999 in Jacksonville, that works with people affected by the criminal justice system to help them rebuild stable lives and to break the cycle of poverty and incarceration. Its programmes are delivered statewide and are organised under a family of services: Ready4Release, which provides pre-release services in partnership with the Florida Department of Corrections across more than 40 correctional facilities; and Ready4Work, a post-release employment and reentry programme covering employability training, job placement and vocational preparation in six locations - Jacksonville, Orlando, Space Coast, St. Augustine, St. Petersburg and Tampa.
Support continues after placement through Ready4Success, which offers case management, mental health counselling, housing, transportation and financial assistance, and Ready4Change, an initiative focused on reentry and rehabilitation. Taken together, these services form a wraparound model that addresses employment, behavioural health, housing and homelessness prevention simultaneously, rather than treating any one of them in isolation.
The organisation reports having supported more than 20,000 justice-impacted people across Florida. It defines safety as the positive presence of well-being rather than merely the absence of crime, and works in partnership with public bodies, notably the Florida Department of Corrections. Its stated sectors include criminal justice and reentry services, workforce development, nonprofit social services, mental and behavioural health, housing, and vocational training.
