KPEP – Olmstead Road

KPEP is a bridge program designed specifically to help previously incarcerated individuals or people on probation reintegrate into everyday life through immersive programs and residential services. This location is their satellite facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

This organization has been in operation since 1980 and has several facilities across the state. KPEP works with government agencies, the judicial system, and law enforcement to help create a structured program to reduce repeat offenses and help participants get back on their feet.

KPEP has three facilities in Kalamazoo, all providing similar programs that help with building life skills, treating substance use disorders (SUDs), and helping participants lay a foundation to become self sufficient and gainfully employed with independent housing. The Chicago Avenue location provides care to both men and women.

Another nice feature of KPEP is that there are options for both residential and outpatient substance abuse treatment. The residential program can be short or long term depending on the needs of the individual. Along with daily group sessions, there’s an option for individual therapy and teaching healthy coping skills to avoid relapse.

In KPEP’s outpatient program, the focus is on achieving better coping mechanisms and retraining the brain to manage stressors and problem solve more effectively to avoid relapse.

Another key feature of the KPEP program overall is providing transitional housing for people that don’t currently have stable living arrangements. There are two forms of housing they offer, transitional and base. Base housing is unsupervised and for people temporarily seeking stable housing while transitional housing is monitored and requires maintaining employment.