Our Education and Activism initiative is targeted to reach those involved in the decisions that lead to incarceration and the programs available upon release. The centerpiece of this initiative – funded by the Long Island Fund for Women and Girls – is wide-scale dissemination and programming around our magazine VOICES: Memoirs from Herstory Inside Suffolk County Correctional Facilities.
We offer mini-workshops, forums and readings for lawyers, social workers, corrections officers and parole officers where we present the magazine in conjunction with our video documentary in an effort to humanize the perspectives of all who interface with women in prison and to advance the dialogue about the effects of incarceration versus rehabilitation on women and their children. We involve women from our program upon their release, in a way that we hope will provide them with ongoing involvement in working for changes in the system and the way in which their condition and struggle is perceived.
Our Education and Activism initiative extends to future decision makers in the criminal justice system, as well. A reading hosted in late 2009 by St. Johns University for its students and faculty of sociology, writing, criminal justice, law and psychology drew a standing-room-only-crowd that lingered for an hour beyond the scheduled period as they engaged in Q&A with ‘Herstory Inside” alumnae who read their work from the Herstory prison anthology.
In 2010, we will be extending this program to include presentation around the issues of immigration and women's job equity as well.
If you are interested in organizing a reading or a series of mini-forums, please contact us.
|
