A Trusted Hub in the Community
High Point Community Development Corporation is a community-based organization rooted in California’s Antelope Valley. We connect individuals and families with practical resources, professional support, trusted relationships, and meaningful opportunities that promote stability, healing, self-sufficiency, and safer communities.
Our work is especially focused on individuals and families facing significant barriers—including people returning from incarceration, justice-involved individuals, people seeking to leave gang or group involvement, survivors of violence, veterans with records, families experiencing instability, and community members working to rebuild their lives.
Through direct services, street and community outreach, systems navigation, and strategic partnerships, High Point meets people where they are and walks alongside them as they move toward where they want to be. The staff endures rigorous training and professional development to consistently address reentry with dignity and respect,
High Point's Origin
High Point Community Development was founded in California’s Antelope Valley to be a place of hope for people who too often have nowhere else to turn.
For months, Dr. Paul Smith volunteered in churches and community organizations throughout the Antelope Valley. During that time, he met men and women returning home from incarceration, individuals seeking to leave gang life behind, survivors of gun violence, and families struggling to overcome trauma.
While their stories were different, one need was remarkably consistent: they needed a trusted place where they could find compassion, guidance, practical support, and genuine opportunities to rebuild their lives.
Recognizing that gap, Dr. Smith envisioned more than another nonprofit. He envisioned a community hub where professional services, lived experience, faith, community relationships, and practical resources could come together to create lasting change.
That vision became High Point Community Development Corporation.
From Vision to Community Impact
Today, High Point is a family-centered, trauma-responsive organization supported by professionals and community leaders who bring both professional expertise and lived experience to the work.
Our team includes clinical and social service professionals, case managers, credible messengers, experienced community outreach workers, a retired U.S. Army Sergeant First Class, interns, volunteers, and community partners who understand the realities faced by the people we serve.
This multidisciplinary approach allows High Point to respond not simply to a single problem, but to the interconnected challenges that often affect an individual or family simultaneously.
What High Point Does
High Point directly provides and coordinates evidence-informed, trauma-responsive services designed to help individuals and families achieve stability and move toward long-term self-sufficiency.
Our work includes:
- Wraparound reentry and stabilization services
- Case management
- General systems navigation
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-informed support
- Counseling and mental health support
- Workforce development and job readiness
- Peer mentorship
- Credible-messenger engagement
- Community and street outreach
- Support for veterans with justice-system involvement
- Family stabilization and reunification support
- Education and vocational assistance
- Resource navigation
- Immediate assistance with essential needs
Through our Big-Small Stuff Initiative, High Point also helps address the everyday barriers that can derail larger goals. This may include assistance with identification documents, transportation, hygiene supplies, work clothing, food, textbooks, educational needs, and other essential resources.
We recognize that something that appears small to one person can become a major obstacle for someone working to secure employment, obtain housing, continue an education, comply with supervision requirements, reunify with family, or successfully return to the community.
Reentry Is Central to Our Work
Reentry has been part of High Point’s mission from its beginning.
We understand that returning home from incarceration involves much more than release from custody. Successful reentry can require assistance navigating housing, employment, transportation, behavioral health, family relationships, education, supervision requirements, identification, healthcare, benefits, and other systems.
High Point provides wraparound support designed to help individuals navigate these challenges while building relationships that encourage accountability, stability, healing, and long-term success.
Our approach combines professional support with the credibility of people who understand the community and, in many cases, have lived through similar challenges themselves.
High Point’s credible messengers and experienced outreach staff help us engage individuals who may not initially trust traditional institutions or service systems. Our social-service capacity also enables us to work with specialized populations, including veterans who have criminal records and families affected by justice-system involvement.
We do more than make referrals. We help people navigate systems, overcome barriers, connect to resources, and remain engaged as they rebuild their lives.
At High Point, we believe healing happens when people are treated with dignity, surrounded by supportive relationships, and connected to meaningful opportunities.
Whether someone is returning from incarceration, recovering from violence, rebuilding after trauma, or simply searching for hope after court, our goal is to walk beside them every step of the journey.
Every life restored strengthens a family. Every family strengthened transforms a neighborhood. Every neighborhood transformed builds a healthier community.
