Livin' On a Prayer

Whoah, we're halfway there! End of week two!

Today after session Ellie showed me this article. It was so powerful to hear the message, especially after some of the comments in class today. The comment regarding “poverty of the spirit” is from the following quote by Mother Teresa:

“The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love. There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty -- it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality.”

In class today, we asked one participant that arrived early for some feedback about the curriculum so far. He said that he wanted us to talk about overcoming the despair and hopelessness that a lot of the men in jail feel. That really stuck with us. We know the population we work with is largely unwanted. We know that there are so many people who would rather just forget about the men we work with and lock them away. We know how many people don’t care about how they’re treated or if they receive the services they need. It was a moment of clarity and sadness to hear that individuals that are incarcerated know that too. Can you imagine how that must feel—to know that the majority of the world doesn’t believe in you and will do anything it takes to keep you isolated from the rest of the world?

In part because of this experience, we are adding in an insightful activity that we participated in during our orientation to the Brown School. The activity consists of hanging up chart paper on the walls, writing on each one a commonly stereotyped individual, and asking participants to write down what stereotypes they would associate with that person. Some of the examples we will use include: “A black man driving a Mercedes benz,” “A Hispanic male,” and “A blonde woman wearing a skirt.”

Both Ellie and I loved this exercise during orientation, and we feel like it will be helpful in facilitating a conversation about stereotypes these men will face when applying for jobs and how to overcome these stereotypes or turn them into positives. Huge thanks to our friend at school who mentioned that she was doing this exercise with a group at her internship! It just goes to show you how networking (even with friends and colleagues) can be beneficial!

Today we were in the chapel again (wamp wamp) BUT it was set up with tables and chairs when we got there. AND the guard asked us for our list as soon as he saw us approaching the chapel, so we were able to get everyone called out and to the chapel on time. Lesson learned: copy the superintendent on emails about requests for preparing the classroom (or chapel), and keep the participant list on you at all times.

In addition to starting on time, this was the first day that we got through everything within our allotted time frame. The pacing of today’s class was great and seemed to keep the group engaged. We had a few clever moments today, such as using post it notes to denote checkboxes on one of our large poster prints instead of a marker so that we can reuse the poster (side note: we need to reuse them because it cost more than $200 to print 10 posters). I also randomly decided to ask the group members to apply our lesson about “I messages” over the next few days. Ellie and I decided after class that we would continue asking group members to apply what we learn in class to their daily lives at the jail and then debrief about it at the beginning of the next session.

Another activity we asked the group about adding to the beginning of each class is a “high/low,” where we would ask each member to share a high and low point about their weeks. They didn’t seem too gung-ho about the idea, and one group member said we should focus on the positive with only a “high,” and he added that we could ask what one thing they learned last session was. We thought that was such an insightful comment to connect to previous classes and review, and we will be doing that for the rest of our sessions.

Usually we will have participants break into pairs or small groups to complete activities, or we do them together as a class. Today, though, we decided to split into two smaller groups with Ellie and I joining each one. This was really successful for encouraging the less talkative group members to speak up. It seems like it was less intimidating to just have one of the facilitators and a more intimate group.

Another activity that promoted a lot of unexpected discussion was a chart entitled “Reasons for Being Late or Absent” that listed possible reasons for being late to work and asked the group to decide whether it was a good or bad reason, or okay if not to often. There was disagreement on almost every reason, but the group members were able to come to a consensus usually on their own. It was great to see them thinking critically and putting their all into a group activity.

There was a little hiccup in today’s session when one of the participants mentioned that there were “men with fancy new iPhones walking around taking pictures” of the facility, and “they’re trying to make it look good in here today.” One of the men took a picture of our group through the window of the chapel, which made us all feel uncomfortable. The guys apparently all know about the scrutiny that MSI is under and knew about the article we linked in our previous post. Again, it was interesting to hear that they all know about this scrutiny (how do they know??—they don’t have internet access), and we wondered for a moment if perhaps that was why everything ran so smoothly today in terms of room setup and call out. We will keep you posted on this as we find out more!

Until next time,

E&K

Happy Social Worker month!!! #CupcakesAndButtons