CoSA (Circles of Support and Accountability) is a volunteer driven, community-based program that mentors and holds accountable released offenders convicted of a sexual crime to prevent reoffending. This provides an extra layer of protection for the community.

The released inmate (referred to as the Core Member or CM) is “surrounded” by up to four community volunteers who together form a Circle.

The Circle supports and holds the CM accountable through weekly group meetings, and contact throughout the week as needed.

1. Check in

CoSA weekly circle meetings start with volunteers checking in about their week - recent events or a struggle they have dealt with. Checking in sets the tone and demonstrates to everyone that both volunteers and Core Members face challenges daily.

2. Meeting Proper

The Accountability Piece

After check-in, the group dives into relationships, risk factors, and situational factors specific to the CM. Circle Volunteers are trained to recognize behaviour that may raise concerns. The Circle addresses the CM’s behaviours, thoughts, fantasies, and perceptions. Volunteers emphasize compliance with supervision, addressing risk factors, targeting criminal thinking patterns, challenging assumptions, and helping to form pro-social attitudes thereby reducing the overall risk of reoffending and adding another layer of community protection.

The Support Piece

The Circle also helps the CM with the various challenges of re-entry into the community (ie. securing housing, limited employment opportunities, health care, transportation, potential mental health concerns, substance abuse, etc). Not only does the Circle address these practical concerns, but it also addresses the CM's social needs.

With limited access to pro-social activities and restrictions due to the CM's offense, (ie. limited contact with friends or family members), the Circle provides the social component and models healthy relationships for the CM. Since isolation is often a big factor that may lead to reoffending, having a Circle acts as a big deterrent.

3. Check Out

The meeting ends with volunteers' thoughts on how the CM is doing and the CM having the final say as to the progress of the meeting.

CoSA is offered to all (male, female, or transgender) who have been incarcerated for a sexual offence and acknowledge that they are at risk of reoffending.

These individuals must already be living in the community to participate in the CoSA program.

They must be committed to living a crime-free lifestyle and willing to work on the risk factors that contributed to his/her offending.

Potential CMs are found through referrals which can come from Provincial and Federal Correctional facilities, criminal justice agencies, other community agencies and self-referrals.

The prospective CM is interviewed by the CoSA Program Coordinator, who will then determine eligibility and future steps for CoSA participation.

Potential Core Members request a Circle and choose voluntarily to participate in CoSA.

Having a CoSA Circle demonstrates to the Core Member that the community is supportive and this can have a very positive effect.

Circle volunteers always work as a cohesive support group.

Volunteers are chosen from the same community as that of the returning citizen and strive to help the Core Member successfully re-integrate into the community.

For detailed information regarding Circle Volunteer requirements, click here.

Every Circle is unique and is designed around the needs of the Core Member.

All members are asked to commit for a minimum of 1 year. If the Coordinator identifies that there is a need to continue supporting the CM and manage the risk he/she represents, it may extend beyond a year.

The need for a Circle should diminish over time because the CM should be developing other appropriate and safe support networks.

As participation in the program is voluntary, the Core Member may withdraw from the program at any time he/she wishes.

• CoSA works - sexual offending is reduced by almost 90%.
  

• Circles fill a gap between programming and community-based supervision.

• Circles build relationships and trust through activities that promote friendship such as outings, accompanying Core Member to activities, meetings, and going for coffee.

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• For many CMs, this is the first time in his/her life that they are engaging in healthy relationships with people who genuinely care about his/her well-being and who aren’t being paid to spend time with them. The relationship itself is fundamental to CoSA’s success.
  

• For many Core Members, a CoSA Circle provides his/her only source of friendship and support following his/her release into our communities. Isolation is a key factor in recidivism.

• Core Members are often more open and honest with his/her Circle than with correctional staff. This openness and honesty provide members of the Circle with insight into emerging concerns regarding the Core Member’s mindset and behaviours. Deteriorating attitudes are challenged and addressed.

CoSA Circle Volunteers choose to actively participate in protecting the communities they live in.

They choose to support and hold accountable someone who has been previously convicted of a sexual offence.

CoSA Volunteers help reduce a person’s likelihood of reoffending, thereby facilitating public safety.

To learn more about becoming a Circle Volunteer, Click Here.

Sex offenders face some of the greatest challenges re-integrating back into communities because of strong stigmatization and isolation from the public. As such, they often receive the least amount of assistance and have the most stringent conditions, which make re-integration more challenging.

Consequently, it is vital to target this population with programs like CoSA to ensure community safety. CoSA successfully bridges the gap between correctional programs and resistant, sometimes hostile communities.

A study released in 2004 by Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness Canada found that the recidivism rate of released sexual offenders within the first 5 years of release was 14% with an additional 7% from 5 to 10 years, dropping to 3% from 10 to 15 years.* This indicates that the critical period for reducing sexual assault re-offences lies within the first 5 years of release for the returning citizen.

CoSA seeks to bridge the gap between programs offered by Provincial and Federal Corrections for reintegrating citizens, by offering Community Support and Accountability on an ongoing basis to both support and challenge the returning citizen during the critical first years following release. Research shows an 83% reduction in sexual re-offences by a returning citizen when he/she participates in our project.**

*Sex Offender Recidivism: A Simple Question, Andrew J.R. Harris & R. Karl Hanson, Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness Canada, 2009

** Circles of Support & Accountability, A Canadian National Replication of Outcome Findings, Wilson, Cortoni & Vermani, 2009

The research findings show that Circles of Support and Accountability can break the vicious cycles of isolation and stigmatization that sex offenders experience on his/her re-entry into communities; thus preventing sexual reoffending.

It originated in Hamilton, Ontario in 1994. For more information about the origins of CoSA, click here.

• CoSA Circle volunteers choose to actively participate in protecting the communities they live in. They choose to support and hold accountable someone who has been previously convicted of a sexual offence.

• CoSA volunteers help reduce a person’s likelihood of reoffending, thereby facilitating public safety. Statistically, high-risk sex offenders who participated in CoSA sexually reoffend 80% less than those without a CoSA Circle.

• Circles of Support and Accountability (Circles) build safer communities through local volunteers working with returning citizens to minimise alienation, support reintegration and so prevent sexual reoffending.

• As a CoSA volunteer, you learn a great deal and build strong relationships. Volunteers grow individually and as a group while challenging the Core Member to become the best version of himself/herself.

The returning citizen (referred to as the Core Member or CM) is “surrounded” by up to four community volunteers in a Circle that meets weekly (and between meetings by phone).

The volunteers offer relational and practical support. They focus on accountability to keep the community safe by emphasizing compliance with supervision, addressing risk factors, targeting criminal thinking patterns, challenging assumptions and helping the CM to form pro-social attitudes.

The Circle Volunteers are trained to recognize behaviour that may raise concerns. The Circle monitors the CM’s behaviours, thoughts, fantasies, and perceptions, and then challenges and confronts the CM and holds him/her accountable to reducing the overall risk of reoffending, thereby adding another layer of community protection.

The Circle will help him/her by discussing the various challenges of re-entry into the community, such as securing housing, limited employment opportunities, health care, transportation, potential mental health concerns, substance abuse, etc. In addition, because of Core Members offences, they may have limited access to pro-social activities and restrictions limiting contact with his/her family members, so the Circle provides a supportive environment to address the social and practical needs of the CM.

“To give someone the opportunity to start anew is always a good thing. Never give up on them; everyone is capable of success at some level.”- CoSA Volunteer

"Overall, this man wants to live his life and I feel I have removed the stigma that I once held towards people with sexual harmful convictions..." - CoSA Volunteer

Make a meaningful difference in your community!

Circles of Support and Accountability is rooted in restorative justice. This is the belief that crime harms the whole community, and together, the community must mend the tears.

“It gives you an opportunity to be a part of the solution and the change you want to see.”

- CoSA Volunteer

“Walk daily in friendship with the Core Member”- (CSC, 2003: p. 11).

Volunteers provide support to facilitate the CM’s transition to life in the community

As a volunteer...

• You do not need any special qualifications.

• Be prepared to give, receive, and to grow.

• You will be part of a team and supported.

• Know that you are changing many lives…

To find out what qualities are needed to be a good CoSA Volunteer, click here

• Committing to volunteer for a minimum of 1 year.

• Participating in an initial basic training session (3-4 hrs.), and additional 4 hour advanced training sessions scheduled twice a year (March and September).

• Attending weekly meetings with the other Circle members (1 ¼ hrs.).

• Supporting the CM and assisting the CM in making good decisions through mentorship and Circle discussions.

• Application (*must be minimum 27 years old)

• Interview

• Criminal background check

• Basic Training 3-4 hrs

• Advanced Circle Training (2 Saturdays annually – Spring and Fall, 4 hours each)

• Attend weekly Circle meetings

• Agreement to participate in a CoSA Circle for a minimum of 1 year.

Society cannot afford any more victims of sexual harm. We need you.

You do not have to be an expert, a psychologist or a social worker.

Our volunteers come from all walks of life: firefighters, lawyers, construction workers, daycare workers, engineers, sales personnel, teachers, homemakers, nurses, retired individuals, etc.

You just need to have a sense of what is needed to become a pro-social citizen: what is right, acceptable, healthy and just, and a desire to help your community.

• Basic Training is provided once volunteers are onboarded. This includes pre-training materials and links prior to a 4 hour in-person training.

• Advanced Training gives the volunteers additional tools and covers topics in-depth such as: sexual deviancy, relapse prevention, healthy boundaries, thought and behaviour patterns, crisis management, group functioning and support, and the restorative justice process.

“We are always on the lookout for caring, conscientious volunteers to help further our mission of community safety."

• Volunteers always work in groups.

• Volunteers are provided excellent training.

• There are one or more experienced volunteers on every Circle.

• The Program Coordinator sits in on the first few meetings and then as needed. In two decades of the program, there has never been a risk to any of our volunteers.

• The Circles meet indoors in a safe location (i.e. office building, church). Meetings are never held at volunteers’ homes.

• The Core Member is never given personal information about the volunteers (i.e. address, family, job, etc.). The group has guidelines and boundaries that prohibit sharing of this information.

You can make a difference. We need teams of volunteers willing to work with reintegrating individuals as they transition from prison back into our community. This program has a proven track record in lowering recidivism (reoffending); thus, making the community safer and helping those released become productive members of society.

Please connect with us! To learn more, or to fill in the Circle Volunteer application form

• Committing to volunteer for a minimum of 1 year.

• Participating in an initial training session (3-4 hrs.), ongoing training and additional 4-hour advanced training sessions scheduled twice a year (Spring and Fall).

• Attending weekly meetings with the CM and other Circle volunteers.

• Supporting the CM and assisting the CM in making good decisions through mentorship and Circle discussions.

• To learn more about volunteering with CoSA, contact us.