I’m personally celebrating 25 years as a volunteer working with people during incarceration and re-entry. It was August 1999, when Restoring Connections began volunteer programs in Denver Women’s Correctional Facility. Since that time, we have companioned over 1,350 individuals during incarceration and re-entry. Ninety-four percent of the individuals who have been released remain successfully in the community and are employed, completed some kind of training or schooling and some are homeowners. We celebrate their successes.
We have also had a commitment to mentoring individuals with life sentences. At present, twenty percent of the individuals we are companioning will likely never be released. How can they transcend their circumstances and more than just “do their time,” find meaning, purpose, and personal calling? We are so inspired by the inner work, the decision-making and the prosocial commitment to healthy community undertaken by these individuals. They are bringing the skills they have learned through our classes and mentoring to other women in the facility, developing programs in the facility that foster growth, mentoring others who are struggling emotionally and exercising positive leadership.
M. has taken charge of the direction of her life. She will likely never leave prison, but her orientation is towards a future for the younger women who will be released. She wants them to have skills that will enable them to stay out of prison and build a great future. She has started a gardening program. The tomatoes this year are amazing and the flower garden a healing place to be.
J. will be released before the end of the month and has requested re-entry mentoring. The presence of a caring mentor will be so important during these early months after nearly two decades of incarceration. Think of how much everything we do has changed during this time and you have a sense of how important mentoring in job search and use of technology for everything can be. Knowing someone is there who is invested in your success is crucial on the hard days.
We celebrate you for making this possible! We thank you for your support of activities and organizations in the community that make a difference! We hope you reach out to another person today and tell them what you appreciate about them. In little ways, it’s together that we build healthy community.
-Vie Thorgren