Disciple: A Circle of Support
By Christine McTaggart
Imagine you lived in a controlled environment. Then one day you step out of that environment to begin a new chapter in your life, but standing directly in front of you is a mountain. Maybe you have some skills to climb that mountain and maybe you don’t, but regardless, the mountain has to be scaled before you can begin your new life on the other side.
The mountain may be metaphorical, but the challenge is no less real to women who re-enter the world after being incarcerated.
Enter the Interfaith Prison Ministry for Women (IPMW).
ROOTED IN FAITH
Founded in 1980 as the Presbyterian Chaplain Ministry, the Interfaith Prison Ministry for Women has grown to an organization that works to empower women leaving prison. For 38 years, IPMW has served incarcerated women’s spiritual needs through its chaplaincy and, for the last 17 years, through transition education programs.
Now they are working on a third facet: reentry support after leaving prison.
“The average length of sentence is 3 to 3.5 years, but we’ve worked with women who have been in for far longer,” said Jennifer Jackson, executive director of IPMW. “One of the biggest obstacles they face is the conglomeration of all the individual needs that have to be addressed upon release. But it’s really the need to address them all at one time that gets overwhelming. We ask these women to climb a very big mountain with a lot of sub-mountains all at the same time.
“Many, if not most, who are coming out are not prepared to scale that mountain,” she said. “It can be done, but you have to have the right equipment and know how to use it. These women are expected to climb with or without it and are judged harshly if they can’t.”
THE REALITIES OF FREEDOM
The days following release from prison can be incredibly stressful. Few know how much awaits those released. They must secure housing, find employment and navigate the rocky maze of social services to reunite families. 82.9 percent of incarcerated women struggle with substance abuse or mental health issues, so ensuring a healthy path and staying in recovery must be a priority. Transportation is needed to attend to it all, and then there’s the economics of incarceration. It’s expensive and can follow you when you leave; post-release fees, court fees, restitution, outstanding fines and legal fees all await payment. And that is on top of the necessary funds to cover basic needs like food and security deposits.
“When a woman first gets out, she may not have family to help her navigate the system,” said Kaye Ward, IPMW program assistant. “She needs doctor appointments and may need help making and getting to them. She may not be familiar with computers, and most job applications are online now. She has to learn that. She may need a driver’s license, state ID, social security card, bank account, debit card, cell phone – a lot of these women don’t have any of it, and some of it may be unfamiliar. They start from scratch and have to work their way up.”
Ward knows firsthand what it is to face the challenges. Before working for IPMW, she was incarcerated for 44 months. During her time in prison, she got involved with the IPMW chaplaincy program and later the pre-release Job Start program, an initiative that partners community agencies with volunteers to help women get to know themselves and prepare for release.
“It’s a wonderful program,” said Ward. “I was fortunate to be in it.”
Ward now works full time for IPMW and attends school at the University of Mt. Olive. A Free Will Baptist, she will be ordained in January and upon her graduation next summer, she will begin the chaplaincy program at Campbell University.
Because she knew the value of support the chaplaincy and pre-release programs gave to incarcerated women, she began to dream of continuing that circle of support for the women after their release.
She was not alone.
THE CIRCLE OF SUPPORT
From the start, IPMW differentiated itself from other prisoner-support programs by focusing on women. “In general, when you think and hear reports about people who are incarcerated, you hear about men,” said Jackson. “Most of the reentry tables we sit at are formed around men.”
Because women make up only about seven to eight percent of those incarcerated, they often get lost in the shuffle of programs and research funding. Data has shown this lack of resources and support affects the way women are able to rebuild their lives upon release.
Jackson began doing research on organizations that focused on post-release support and learned about the “circle of support” model. Traditionally used for families in homelessness and poverty, the concept of the model is to focus support not in any one area, but to provide resources in a number of areas simultaneously.
“Catholic Charities of Raleigh had been using this model for more than a decade following Hurricane Katrina,” said Jackson. “We spent nine months with them, customizing what they were doing and crafting a program designed specifically for formerly incarcerated women.”
The result is a sustainable partnership model that prioritizes the needs of women leaving prison and puts in place resources to meet them.
“It’s a team mentoring model,” said Shanae Artis, IPMW mentor and outreach manager. “We work with faith-based and civic organizations to put together teams of eight to 10 people with different skill sets. We organize the group, train those in it and then partner it with the woman and her family.”
The goal of the reentry support circle is to work with the woman on both her immediate and future needs. Because the circle is with her for 12-15 months following her release, the expectation is the circle will be able to help firmly establish the woman in her new life. The expectation is rooted in the design of the circle itself; since nothing is resting on any one set of shoulders, there is far less chance of the formerly incarcerated woman losing her mentor because of circumstance. Too, because everyone in the circle brings a different skill set, they’re able to assist with and meet myriad needs at the same time.
Sara Stohler is a parishioner at St. Mark’s, Raleigh, and a longtime volunteer mentor. “I knew a lot of the problems the people I mentored [in prison] were going to face,” she said. “I saw the need for someone to walk with them.”
Stohler spoke with the Rev. Sallie Simpson, then a deacon at St. Mark’s, about the post-release program IPMW was starting. She wondered if there would be interest among the congregation to form a support circle. Simpson supported the idea, and so Stohler began the conversation. “I started asking people if they wanted to be a part of it,” she said, “and they talked to other people, and where I thought we’d have trouble getting a team of six, suddenly we had eight.”
That circle of eight is comprised of six members of St. Mark’s, one member of the Yavneh Jewish community that nests at St. Mark’s and one additional volunteer. In addition to the team, St. Mark’s lent its support in another way.
MISSION ENDOWMENT
Simpson knew of the Mission Endowment grants available through the Diocese of North Carolina, and she saw a good fit. The IPMW post-release support circles are “outreach into the community,” she said. “It’s taking church—and the power of the church—into the community.”
With the first support circle underway already and the second in the formation stage, the Mission Endowment grant awarded in the fall of 2017 will help fund IPMW’s post-release initiative.
“The women who have served time in prison and are coming out are just like everyone else,” said Stohler. “To spend time with them is an enriching experience. Those barriers we put up about prison just go away. And those of us who serve have formed a tight bond ourselves. It creates community within the congregation and church.”
“The opportunity to help someone with the knowledge you have, to enrich their lives and help them to rise is very satisfying,” added Ward. Having been on both sides of the relationship, “the giver gets far more out of it than the person they’re helping.”
Christine McTaggart is the communications director for the Diocese of North Carolina.
Tags: North Carolina Disciple
