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If your words had the power to create a true change, what is the change that you personally would like to see?

This is the question that you will be asking each new participant in your writing circle. In order to prepare for the work ahead, we ask that you answer it for yourself in a way that you will be willing to share with writers you work with.

 

Although none of us can know how we will feel when we meet a group for the first time, and the reality of who the people are, it will be good to reflect on what you would like to share about what is bringing you to do this work.

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  • Have you been directly impacted?

  • Was a close friend or family member impacted?

  • How did that change your life?

  • Or are you an ally for another reason?

  • Are you currently living behind bars?

  • Are you an officer or prison counselor looking for another way?

  • Have you been working with prison populations for years, but never done a writing workshop?

  • Are you working on the outside in probation or parole?

  • Are you already leading groups of prison families as someone who

  • has been directly impacted?

  • Or are you coming from a university or community partnership setting?

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Incarceration Context
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Before you proceed with this online training we ask you to watch these short videos in order to help you create a self portrait in answer to these questions.

Introducing Yourself
 

As you watch these videos, let yourself daydream about how you will introduce yourself on your very first workshop. 

 

You will see what a different way each facilitator has. There is no correct way. When you have experienced them all, download and print the first reflection using the form below.

Video #1

Video #3

Video #2

Video #4

Reflection #1

Introducing Myself / What Brings Me to This Work

As you embark on this work, it is important to come in with reverence for what can never be equal in carceral settings.  To come in with brave vulnerability, and a deep desire to reverse the power paradigm.  This will allow you to pave the way for each participant’s power in the endeavor, different but equal to your own.  In a place where power is taken away every moment and every day, for months, years and often decades, you must acknowledge with humbleness the difference in your position and role.  

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We have set up this reflection document in an expandable, downloadable format which you can save to your computer or print.  We suggest that you set up a special “Reflection Portfolio” folder for this, whether digital or in hard copy.

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Remember these documents are only for you, or, if you are working with a partner or team, to be shared as you wish.  No one else will ever see them, so feel free to write in fragments or bullet points, to free write over days or even weeks or years, or to shape them into something you want to publish or share with a wider audience someday.

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