Amity's Story
Building Safer, Healthier Communities through Service
“Amity,” derived from the Latin amicus (meaning “friend”), is used to describe relationships characterized by goodwill despite differences. > The word Amity comes from the Latin amicus, meaning “friend.” It describes relationships grounded in goodwill, reaching beyond our differences to find connection, understanding, and common purpose. Those values come to life through the stories that shaped Amity Foundation – and in the stories that will carry its shared vision forward across generations.
Founded in 1981, Amity Foundation is a California-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that began by serving people who were routinely excluded from care – individuals deemed “not amenable,” ejected from other agencies, or marginalized by systems that failed to meet their needs. From the outset, Amity challenged conventional approaches to rehabilitation by centering dignity, accountability, and long-term incomes.
Amity’s Teaching Community model – innovated by women leaders outside the traditional hierarchical Therapeutic Community framework – focused on habilitating men and women returning from long prison sentences while supporting mothers, fathers, and their children. Early services expanded to include prevention programs in schools, outreach to people living with HIV/AIDS, partnerships with First Nation communities, and programming inside adolescent facilities and correctional settings.
Amity has spent more than four decades developing programs that improve public safety while reducing costs and recidivism. The organization helped pioneer the Male and Female Community Reentry Program (MCRP/FCRP) model – an evidence-based, community-centered alternative to incarceration that has demonstrated reduced recidivism and significantly lower costs than traditional prison models. These programs have become a national point of reference, drawing policymakers and practitioners from across the U.S. and internationally.
Operating in California and Arizona, Amity pairs direct services with policy advocacy to advance criminal justice reform, address inequitable systems, and improve outcomes in employment, housing, education, and family reunification – while remaining grounded in its core commitment to dignity, accountability, and second chances.