As I reflect more and more on my time spent at Chepstow House, I find that I have a lot left to learn and a growing passion to work with returning citizens. I am very grateful to say that I have already found a few ways to continue learning and to keep my passion alive in Cincinnati.
Yesterday I met with three people doing re-entry work in Cincinnati. Dominic Duren who is the reintegration coordinator at St. Vincent de Paul, Gayle Burton who is the director of Project Westt (a re-entry organization for women), and Brother Mike Murphy who is the executive director for the HELP program (a re-entry program for men). They shared their experiences of re-entry work with me including their philosophy and mission, the challenges of their work, personal stories, and opportunities to get involved I am looking forward to working with them and to (hopefully) get other Xavier students involved with Project Westt and the HELP program.
Another big opportunity that I am excited about is a level II fieldwork experience in a county jail in Findlay, Ohio. On Monday I am going to meet with occupational therapy faculty at the University of Findlay to discuss the opportunity and visit the county jail where the classes take place. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I hope to be spending three months next year with the program, running classes in the county jail and working with clients on probation. It is the only place in the country that I have found that actually has OTs working directly with returning citizens or those who are incarcerated. I never thought I'd have the chance to do something like this as part of my education, and am really excited even just to visit Monday!
Another exciting update: the first video I am making for my project is finally finished! Before I left Hanley I promised Brighter Futures that I would make Chepstow House a PR video from the interviews I was doing with clients and staff. I hope that the organization is able to use it to reach out to more women in the community and to communicate with organizations about the unique services they provide. Soon I will be starting the longer video that I am doing for my Brueggeman Project about the challenges women face in the process reintegration . I am excited to work on it but know I have a lot of information to go through before I can get started.
Yesterday I met with three people doing re-entry work in Cincinnati. Dominic Duren who is the reintegration coordinator at St. Vincent de Paul, Gayle Burton who is the director of Project Westt (a re-entry organization for women), and Brother Mike Murphy who is the executive director for the HELP program (a re-entry program for men). They shared their experiences of re-entry work with me including their philosophy and mission, the challenges of their work, personal stories, and opportunities to get involved I am looking forward to working with them and to (hopefully) get other Xavier students involved with Project Westt and the HELP program.
Another big opportunity that I am excited about is a level II fieldwork experience in a county jail in Findlay, Ohio. On Monday I am going to meet with occupational therapy faculty at the University of Findlay to discuss the opportunity and visit the county jail where the classes take place. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I hope to be spending three months next year with the program, running classes in the county jail and working with clients on probation. It is the only place in the country that I have found that actually has OTs working directly with returning citizens or those who are incarcerated. I never thought I'd have the chance to do something like this as part of my education, and am really excited even just to visit Monday!
Another exciting update: the first video I am making for my project is finally finished! Before I left Hanley I promised Brighter Futures that I would make Chepstow House a PR video from the interviews I was doing with clients and staff. I hope that the organization is able to use it to reach out to more women in the community and to communicate with organizations about the unique services they provide. Soon I will be starting the longer video that I am doing for my Brueggeman Project about the challenges women face in the process reintegration . I am excited to work on it but know I have a lot of information to go through before I can get started.
Finally, I want to say that I am really excited about all of the upcoming opportunities for the Xavier community to be engaged in the issue of re-entry. 1,000 plus students will join the Xavier family next week and will have been required to read Fr. Greg Boyle's book, Tattoos on the Heart. The book is full of beautiful stories about how working with the "homies" (all people who have been involved in gangs) have taught Fr. Boyle about God and love. I am excited to discuss the book with the first years and to have Fr. Boyle on campus in October to talk about Homeboy Industries....it is great that re-entry issues are being brought to the table and that it is being done through the lens of Jesuit values and ideals!
Here is TED video of Fr. Boyle that gives a glimpse into what the book is like...