Welcome!
The Center for Community Alternatives (CCA) is a leader in the field of community-based alternatives to incarceration. Our mission is to promote reintegrative justice and a reduced reliance on incarceration through advocacy, services and public policy development in pursuit of civil and human rights.
CCA serves people in trouble: youth at risk; families in crisis; people struggling to address drug and alcohol problems and HIV and AIDS; and people who have been involved in the criminal justice system who are seeking community reintegration and productive, law-abiding lives. CCA endeavors to address these issues by emphasizing personal empowerment, self-respect and concern for one's community.
Selected Articles
Sentencing for Dollars: The Financial Consequences of a Criminal Conviction
Closing the Door to Higher Education
Aspiring to the Impracticable: Alternatives to Incarceration in the Era of Mass Incarceration, Marsha Weissman, Ph.D. New York University Review of Law & Social Change, Volume 33.2, 2009.
Quick Links
News & Events
The Youth Services division of CCA in Syracuse is applying for a Pepsi Refresh grant to continue our mentoring program which matches caring adults with youth in alternative school or whose parents are incarcerated. Winning proposals are selected through an online, nationwide voting process—a lot like American Idol for nonprofits! Without this grant, we will no longer have funding for a mentoring program.
Every vote counts! A one time registration is required. It is simple! You need to submit a valid e-mail, your name, birth date, and choose a password. Then vote!
You can cast your vote once every day throughout the month of September at http://www.refresheverything.com/ccamentoring and you may text our idea number: 102558 to Pepsi at 73774. If you would like to be a Super Advocate, receiving daily text reminders and Facebook posts, please e-mail Jason Torreano.
Thank you to all who sponsored, ran and walked in CCA’s first annual Second Chances 5K Walk/Run For Justice. For our first event, we were so pleased by the support of 80 runners and walkers, many volunteers (including incredibly dedicated and resourceful staff), and wonderful weather! The results and a selection of photos are linked to this page. A special “thank you” to the West Genesee Wildcats Cross Country runners, and our sponsors: Meritain Health, Alexander & Catalano, 100 Black Men of Syracuse, Inc., Time Warner Cable, Bank of America, Wegmans Markets, Tops Markets, and Starbucks.
CCA-Syracuse provides opportunities for school-based mentoring of middle school youth. Please consider Changing Lives Through the Power of Mentoring!