The Blair County Prison Re-entry Coalition has a new email address, and is working on an electronic referral form to distribute via this address that would enable coalition contacts to provide information on potential clients to help the coalition in assisting those individuals.

Thus, if an inmate who’s soon to be released, or a recently released inmate, or an advocate for such an individual gets in touch, the coalition could provide a form for listing the client’s needs — such as housing, a job, physical or mental health care, drug and alcohol counseling, etc. — which would allow the coalition to direct the client’s case to appropriate service providers.

The new address is blaircountyreentry@gmail.com, which coalition officials hope will end up drawing more attention than the old one, said coalition Chairman Ken Dean.

“We’re trying to lay some groundwork, so that when we first get in contact with people, we get a better idea what their needs are,” Dean said.

That could help prevent potential clients from being referred to agencies and individuals that are unable to help them, Dean said.

A possible mechanism would trigger an automatic reply to incoming emails that would include the fillable form.

The coalition has no paid employees to monitor email traffic.

The organization also has no account for funds, and is hoping soon to get assistance from a local agency to establish such an account in which it could safely store money that could be used to help clients.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.