Mukhtar Mohammed is the coordinator of Muslim Connect, Bakri Shanino is the project officer and Lina Ayoubi is the female support officer. Muslim Connect is ICV’s community reintegration program for Muslim-Victorians who are exiting the prison system and is available at six prisons in Melbourne, five male and one female prison. Upon release, the program connects Muslims back in with their community and provides necessary support services for successful reintegration. Engagement begins inside prison, and involves pre-release and post-release support. Services include:

• Informal counselling, any time of day, our project officers are readily available and on call to help with any issues, people may face, including crisis response.
• A standard ICV grant of $500 to buy essential items like clothes, shoes and phones to start life again.
• Referral to the nearest social and spiritual networks, including Mosques.
• Events to bring people together to share food, experiences and to create support networks in their transition journeys.
• Advocacy work, for example court related and legal representation.
• Collaboration with mainstream integration services to ensure culturally and religiously appropriate services.
• Management of compliance with community corrections release conditions, including accompaniment to appointments.
• Support for parents and families of individuals – largely from migrant backgrounds who do not fully understand court and legal systems – including financial support, referral, language support as well as mediation and informal counselling to help keep strengthening family ties.

The National Zakat foundation works with Muslim Connect to provide bond and first months rent, crisis accommodation and food vouchers. If people fall short for food and basic items, ICV provide until they are settled. People are eligible for six months of the Muslim Connect program prior to release and six months post release. Depending on when they are referred to us, people receive up to 12 months in total of assistance Mukhtar, Bakri and Lina’s work is a comprehensive ‘life service’ available 24 hours to enable successful reintegration for Victorian-Muslims in the process of rebuilding their lives after incarceration. The people they are assisting come first in their work as they are often providing food and crisis response.   In the last six months Muslim Connect has served eighty one Muslim individuals, making a real difference to their reintegration. Muslim Connect also works to develop culturally appropriate drug and alcohol programs in collaboration with organisations such as My Centre Support Services.     If you would like to support Muslim Connect, please contact us at admin@icv.org.au