our services
What We Do
From running empowerment groups in and out of jail, providing transitional housing, to daycare and online courses, Breaking Free aims to serve the individual seeking a life of freedom on their own terms holistically.
Transitional Housing in Nassau County
Nassau County, the Long Island suburb of New York City, is known for its luxury and high price-tag with large mansions, private schools, and expensive malls.
Homelessness in New York State is on the rise; currently, the State is 4th in the nation in the number of homeless people. In Nassau County alone, 1405 people are within the emergency shelter system where they are placed in homes throughout the County for a place to stay. Many of these men enter GOPI House, Breaking Free’s emergency and transitional housing program. GOPI House is a 10-bed facility located in Hempstead.
It serves a dual need in the County: providing beds, counseling, and other holistic services that support homeless men and men transitioning out of the criminal justice system, find a haven and the healing they need. Those in the home have access to counselors, mentorship, spiritual counseling, case management, and job canvasing help.
In 2019, we’re solidifying a new transitional home for women and are looking to create more permanent housing solutions not only in Long Island but in neighboring cities and states.
10
beds
x
clients served in 2018
1,405
people in emergency shelter system in nassau county
Dr. Byrd-McKinney serves as a Chaplain at Nassau County Correctional Facility
Women are overlooked in the conversation regarding incarceration but the numbers are staggering: incarceration has increased 100x in the past 40 years.
Nassau County Correctional Facility has over 1,000 people currently behind bars, some 700 of them still awaiting trial.
As a chaplain, Dr. Saroya Byrd-McKinney runs the DART program at Nassau Correctional Facility for women who are looking for spiritual, yet practical solutions to their substance abuse issues that serve as part of the narrative of their imprisonment.
Dr. Saroya Byrd-McKinney creates lessons that get to the root of these women’s loss of freedom long before entering prison.
Women in the DART program have seen real change: many are empowered to use this point in their lives to get clean, have a new foundation of faith and hope, and through this program are more mentally prepared for life after prison.
This program serves as a critical way of addressing recidivism while still behind bars by empowering women to take responsibility and giving them the tools to make lasting change.
1,064
people currently in nassau county correctional facility
Children of those incarcerated need support too.
1 in 14 children in the US has an incarcerated parent. Many of the people currently behind bars are the products of one, or both parents being incarcerated and this cycle continues to grow.
Many people underestimate the psychological, emotional, and often times physical toll being a child of an incarcerated parent can be. Some are left with family members who are ill-prepared in fostering an environment for the child’s growth or maybe unaware of how to counsel them throughout the process of their parent leaving and returning from prison.
Breaking Free works to combat this through our daycare program. Guardians of children with incarcerated parents are given preference into the program that seeks to add a level of normalcy and foster an environment conducive to healing for these children.
It all serves as a relief to those incarcerated knowing their child is in a safe, morally grounded space. We’ve found that this helps reunite families and create even stronger bonds once returned.
We travel around the world combating the prison industrial complex and teaching freedom in all sense of the word.
The US is the world’s leader in incarceration, and Breaking Free is uniquely positioned to share the collective knowledge around prison reform not just in America, but around the world. Founder Dr. Saroya Byrd-McKinney began her pastoral work overseas, ministering abroad in Ghana, London, and Canada. Breaking Free sees freedom in a global context: until injustice and inequalities, especially as it relates to criminal justice, are corrected globally, we’re bound to repeat the same patterns if not in this generation than the next.
Our work overseas mainly focuses on developing leaders in chaplaincy and criminal justice reform. We focus on helping the individual dedicated to solving these tough issues first take a critical look at what’s holding them back in their own lives from living free even if they aren’t behind bars. By strengthening the people who are the symbol of strength in these countries, we’re able to help better those that we serve across the globe.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Thank you for your interest in Breaking Free! Here are ways you can get involved and be part of the solution to helping men and women in crisis transition to a life of freedom physically, spiritually, and mentally.
The Breaker Nation Movement is a group of dedicated people all across the globe committed to their own spiritual and economic growth to better pursue prison reform, combat recidivism, or receive the healing from past traumas they need to bring more healing into their societies. We do this through online courses, interactive live social media conversations, in-person conferences and events, and more.