Twenty churches. Twenty families. One number that keeps us going: 4%.
The national reoffense rate is 63%. Harvest candidates reoffend at 4%. The Alberta Initiative is how we make that the rule, not the exception, across the province.
Seven years of proof. One province-wide test.
Harvest has spent seven years proving that a trained, committed local church changes what happens after someone walks out of prison. The Alberta Initiative is the largest test of that model yet: 20 churches, recruited and trained across all five Alberta regions, each one ready to walk with a candidate for two years.
The campaign year is 2026. The target is $180,000 by December 31. What we are asking for is not abstract. It is the exact cost of training 20 churches and building the infrastructure to vet and match candidates well.
$120,000 trains 20 churches at $6,000 each. $60,000 builds the launch infrastructure. Every dollar already has a job.
"I realize I need a new family because I never really had one. I have a 13-year-old daughter that I barely know, but she needs her mom. I'm ready for whatever this is going to take." Michelle, Harvest candidate, 2024
Michelle's incarceration for drug trafficking and weapons offences followed a life spent searching for identity and belonging, through childhood sexual abuse, broken relationships, and abandonment. What changed her trajectory wasn't a program. It was a trained church community in Alberta that had already done the work before she arrived, and stayed after.
Today Michelle holds a steady job and is rebuilding her relationship with her daughter. Children of incarcerated parents are four times more likely to be incarcerated themselves. Every time Harvest interrupts that cycle for one parent, it changes the odds for the next generation too.
Training one church is not a symbolic gift. It is the full preparation a church team needs before they ever meet their candidate: how to build trust, how to navigate conflict, what a two-year commitment without an exit clause actually requires. It is a one-time cost. Once a church is trained, it stays in the Harvest network, ready for the next candidate, and the one after that.
What your gift is actually funding.
Twenty successful placements return an estimated $3.6 million a year to Albertans in avoided incarceration costs. That number matters. But it is not the one we lead with.
The number that matters most to us isn't a reincarceration rate avoided. It's the number of people going on to live purposeful, productive lives, and the families who get to keep them.
See the full breakdown and giveHelp us write the next one.
My name is John Kreklo. I'm the Executive Director of Harvest Prison Ministries, and for the last seven years I've watched something happen that most people don't believe is possible: people coming out of prison, staying out, for good.
Not because of a new program. Because of an old idea done right: a local church that commits to one person for two years, and actually shows up.
We're now doing this at the largest scale we ever have. The Alberta Initiative is training 20 churches across the province, each one equipped to walk alongside a candidate for two years and beyond. Every gift, whatever size it is, moves that forward. A gift at the Founding or Restoration Partnership level names a church, and a placement, that would not exist without it.
Thank you for reading Michelle's story, and for considering being part of the next one.
Blessings,
John KrekloExecutive Director, Harvest Prison Ministries
Twenty churches. Twenty families. Help us get there.
The Alberta Initiative is building the church network that makes more stories like Michelle's possible. See the partnership tiers, or find out if your church is ready to take part.