Workshops We Offer

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STEP BY STEP WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

Our workshops are designed to offer women in prison a structured environment for learning and self reflection. Workshops focus on naming their gifts and strengths gives them the opportunity to begin to believe in themselves and to claim the power to rewrite their stories by both facing the pain of their lives and celebrating themselves.

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LIVE YOUR DREAMS

Women name a dream they have had and the fears that keep them from realizing this dream. They name steps to overcome these fears. At the end of the workshop, each woman is given a picture of a rainbow on which are written the strengths that have been named in the course of the workshop. In the picture is a cloud on which is written the fears she has named. A pot of gold sits at the end of the rainbow, symbolizing the dream she has named.

STRIDE

Our outside program, STRIDE, is designed to offer programs that address issues women face in reentry, and that provide strength-based support for women of all backgrounds and lifestyles. STRIDE is open to all women.

Strengths, Transition, Resources, Inner Discovery, and Events

¨ Workshops every Wednesday from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. We offer 8-week Life History workshops as well as Choices, which is continuous.

¨ Retreats following each Life history graduation, in which we reflect further on a theme that was addressed in the workshop

¨ Monthly Family Events, in which we organize a community-based event for women and their loved ones

¨ Parenting Workshop, offered for mothers in the community. During each session we also offer age appropriate strength-based workshops for the participants’ children

REENTRY FAMILY CIRCLES

Together with Partners in Restorative Initiatives, Step by Step offers a program for women coming out of incarceration and their families. Incarceration affects the lives of family members, children, and friends, as well as the person serving time, yet very few services offer support that addresses the needs and strengths of each person. Reentry Family Circles bring people together in order to help participants gain a better understanding of each others’ viewpoints, provide a basis for forgiveness and reunification, and resolve personal conflicts in a healthy, strength-based environment. This can be an opportunity (and sometimes it is the only opportunity) for loved ones to voice how her incarceration has affected them.

¨ Choices: Women identify the choices they have when they don’t think they have any through creative, reflective activities. This workshop also encourages women to reflect on the consequences of choices they’ve made in their past, and to develop tools to make better choices in the future.

GIFT GIVING

Gift Giving is offered in December, focusing on the meaning of a gift coming from the intention of the giver, not the price. The women choose a person who has been important in their lives and write a poem for this person that they enclose in a card they have decorated.

LET YOUR LIFE SHINE

Women reflect on the negative images we hold of ourselves, how these images developed and the tools for overcoming these negative images. In the first session, each woman makes a cardboard puppet of herself and in the ensuing weeks, as images of self are named, colored dots symbolizing these images are placed on the puppets. In the last session, strengths that have surfaced are placed on the puppets over the images.

CLAIMING THE POWER OF OUR VOICES

This program helps women to experience and learn the power of raising their voices for justice by learning about other women who have done this. They study women of the Civil Rights Movement and the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo who have fought against violence and for justice. The women study violence in our society and make plans for raising their voices against it.

WOMEN BRAVE

Is based on a book named ‘Women Brave in the Face of Danger’ that celebrates the lives of women in Latin America. The workshop looks at the lives of various women who can teach us how to live ‘brave’ by their example. These women serve as role models for facing fears and overcoming obstacles.

THE TREE

Involves reading the book ‘The Tree That Survived the Winter’ each week and applying that story to the their own lives. Questions explored include: What have I survived? Who has helped me through the winters of my life? How has my family tree influenced my life?

TAMING THE LION

Teaches us how to deal with the difficult people in our lives including ourselves. It focuses on learning that the difficult relationships we have begin with our own actions and attitudes, not the faults of other people. We have drawn many of the exercises from the book ‘LionTaming:Dealing with the Difficult People in Our Lives.

MOTHERING FROM PRISON

This program is a 22 session workshop offered twice a week at Albion Correctional Facility. It covers topics like: my experiences as a child and how they relate to my role as mother; how children develop; what are effective means of discipline; how can I parent from prison?

The objectives of this workshop are to increase the women’s knowledge of:

· Child development.

· Difference between punishment and discipline.

· Methods of discipline.

· Issues for children of having an incarcerated mother

· Issues on reintegrating into the family

· Re-enforcement of the learning from each class

Volunteers of America of WNY

214 Lake Avenue

Rochester, NY 14608

Phone (585) 402-7212

chenrie@voawny.org