Florida Social Services Guide
to Public Assistance Agencies and Employment Directory
Found inside the Florida Social Services Guide are details on public aid programs and job resources pulled together from government offices, faith-based groups, nonprofits, and community efforts statewide. This directory connects people returning from incarceration or experiencing homelessness with services meant to help them get back on their feet. Information flows in from federal channels, state departments, city-run centers, plus grassroots collectives working quietly behind the scenes. Each entry serves as a doorway – offering access to shelter, food, medical care, legal advice, training opportunities. Help exists in many forms, showing up through funding streams, volunteer networks, outreach teams who show up regularly. The guide does not promise change – it simply maps where support is actually available. Locations stretch from rural towns to coastal cities, covering regions often overlooked. What you find here grows out of real need, shaped by years of struggle and response.
Finding steady work often hinges on knowing where to look – a truth that hits harder when someone has served time. What works for most people might not fit those rebuilding after prison. Staying out of jail can depend less on willpower and more on having clear directions. Solid info acts like a map some never got handed. Without it, old patterns pull stronger. Knowing what comes next changes how someone moves forward. Clarity shapes choices more than lectures ever do.
About the Project
Out here, things started with Andy Vissicchio – his time spent alongside the Order of Malta and inside prison outreach shaped what came next. Beginning in 2014, work shifted to Barry University, where a team moved under the lead of Dr. Laura Finley, whose role ties to sociology and criminology as an associate professor. What you find in this guide took shape through their hands, each fact checked, every detail weighed for truth and clarity.
Last changes rolled out during autumn of 2025.
Purpose
Purpose of the Guide
This guide helps groups support people looking for rehab, jobs, shelter, medical care, or similar needs. Arranged by county across Florida, details follow regional lines instead of categories.
This guide doesn’t cover everything – yet it shows what students involved managed to gather, using care and checking sources they found useful.
Contact Information
Dr. Laura Finley, PhD
Professor of Criminology and Sociology
College of Arts & Sciences
Barry University
11300 NE 2nd Ave
Miami Shores, Florida 33161
P: +1 (305) 899-3412
Email: lfinley@barry.edu
Florida Social Services Guide 