The Faith Alliance Initiative for Transitional Healing began as an attempt to answer the need for one-on-one spiritual counseling and guidance in life issues that was both Christ centered and tailored to the specific needs of individuals returning from prison.  The eternal and soul saving truths of the Catholic Faith provide the most effective means of change available to inmates who are truly and sincerely seeking the spiritual rehabilitation that is the basis of success when released from incarceration.   

     In keeping with these goals, FAITH seeks to be a decidedly Catholic organization. Central to this is the assistance that can be provided in helping not only individuals, but entire families, discover the strength and beauty to be found in merging, and extending, the newly reunited family into the sacramental faith of the parish family. FAITH can be particularly useful in matching such families to receptive parishes, and in educating and encouraging parishes to open their minds and hearts to the needs of those healing from the experience of incarceration.  The readjustment to life without a loved one who goes away to prison is followed by an equal, or even more intense, period of readjustment when that person comes home.  By assisting parishes in establishing a loving and welcoming environment for returning ex-offenders and their families, FAITH can continue, and finish, the job began by Catholics Incarcerated and other such ministries of goodwill, by easing this period of readjustment.

     Beyond and also within the family, FAITH recognizes the power the mentoring process has to bring the life of a released individual back into focus and balance with the requirements of the world.  For older men who are retired and find themselves with time on their hands and that aching realization that time and the world have passed them by, a new vocation awaits for those willing to share time and life experience with a younger man who is in need of a father figure and the advice and wisdom of an older man.  One of the great constants found in men who go to prison is the lack of a strong and meaningful father figure in their lives.  It is never too late, and the statistics show that more often than not, this kind of relationship is the difference between success and failure.  Though the numbers and the need are much less among women, the same principles certainly apply here as well.  FAITH seeks to guide and direct this process by recruiting and providing training and expertise to prospective mentors, by matching mentors and mentees, and by encouraging the process at all levels including, and especially, within the parish environment.  The logical and obvious extension of this process would be in motivating parish families to embrace and befriend the families of ex-offenders and to encourage and prepare families to endure the stresses and celebrate the joys of reunification.

     In an effort to extend the healing power of Jesus Christ to all, FAITH seeks an active and vital participation in encouraging the Restorative Justice process.  FAITH must also be envisioned as a broader effort to recover the incarcerated and restore families.  Inherent in this process must be the goal and objective of bringing healing to all, including victims and their loved ones.  FAITH would expect to serve, and serve with, the Michigan Catholic Conference and the efforts already underway to explore and perfect the potentials latent in the Restorative Justice approach.
   
     Finally, FAITH is envisioned as a sister ministry to Catholics Incarcerated, working in parallel with the goals and aspirations of this ministry to continue in the world the task begun inside the jails and prisons.  As such, the same vision of a ministry functioning across and above diocesan boundaries, with a calling to serve and enlighten the needs of the various dioceses and function on the parish level as well, is inherent and here stated, as well as merely implied.  Beginning with a sacramentally based jail ministry, and in conjunction with Catholics Incarcerated during the prison experience, FAITH expresses the final goal of completing the prison ministry experience by bringing the captive successfully home to family, the Church and, in turn, the world.