Building a Community-Focused Path to Re-entry | FUSE

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About Us
FUSE is a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing the capacity of local governments to engage communities, advance racial equity, and work more effectively for everyone.
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The FUSE Model centers around a one-year full-time public service role in city or county government and includes three primary phases from start to finish.
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FUSE Executive Fellows and Alumni are experienced leaders committed to advancing equity through action-oriented partnerships with government agencies.
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FUSE is a national nonprofit dedicated to increasing the capacity of local governments to engage communities, advance racial equity, and work more effectively for everyone.
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The FUSE team and board of directors are committed to driving equitable change locally and nationally.
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The power of government. The experience of community. The impact of new ideas. Together we can build better systems
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Partner With FUSE
The FUSE Model centers around a one-year full-time public service role in city or county government and includes three primary phases from start to finish.
Executive Fellowship Program
FUSE Executive Fellows and Alumni are experienced leaders committed to advancing equity through action-oriented partnerships with government agencies.
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Thanks to the generous support and close partnerships of our funders and supporters, we have been able to deepen our impact on issues that matter the most to communities and the government agencies that serve them.
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Our Projects
Through strategic collaboration, these initiatives harness innovative solutions and practices to bridge gaps in healthcare access.
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Health
Expanding access to affordable health care and mental health resources to improve key indicators of community health.
Justice
Enhancing public safety and reform of criminal justice by changing policing, 911 dispatching, bail, sentencing, probation, reentry.
Education
Improving options for childcare, early education, STEM, out-of-school-time, and post-secondary enrollment and affordability.
Climate
Building new infrastructure, disaster resilience, renewable energy, green economy jobs, and plans to reduce emissions.
Housing
Addressing issues of homelessness, housing insecurity, gentrification, and the need to preserve and build more affordable housing.
Jobs
Increasing the number of living-wage jobs and preparing for the future of work through expanded job training.
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Approximately 40,000 adults are under the supervision of the Los Angeles County Probation Department. To help these individuals successfully reintegrate into communities, the department is working to increase community engagement, peer mentorship, and access to comprehensive wraparound services for justice-involved individuals. To advance these efforts, FUSE Executive Fellow Amy Cross helped research best practices in community-based reintegration and identified opportunities to make county services more responsive to the needs of communities.

Amy guided the planning for a day-long re-entry symposium that brought together more than 900 stakeholders from across sectors, including people with lived experience, to identify missing services and clarify how to distribute resources more effectively. She developed and proposed a strategy for a peer mentorship program that would connect justice-involved young adults to mentors with relevant life experience who can inspire new attitudes, increase engagement with programs and services, and offer a clearer pathway to successful community re-entry. Amy also helped key stakeholders, such as county and community-based service providers and leaders, develop a shared vision and mission for the county’s first community re-entry center. Her work helped the department improve its collaboration with outside agencies, community partners, and justice-involved individuals, laying the foundation for successful future collaboration and countywide replication.

AMY CROSS brings 15 years of experience in criminal justice and education systems to designing transformative, strategic solutions to public safety challenges. Most recently, Amy directed a portfolio of research projects at the National Network for Safe Communities aimed at reducing incarceration, violence, and the police-community trust deficit in nine cities. Amy has worked as a public defender, educator, and youth organizer in New York City and Chicago, combining a range of strategies including litigation, mediation, advocacy, and hands-on strategic advisement to achieve justice system reform. Amy holds a B.A. in American and race and ethnic studies from Smith College, an MEd in special education from CUNY Queens College, and a J.D. from Cardozo School of Law.

2018-2019 | Los Angeles County - Probation Department

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