LEARNING MODULES
This is your homepage for the journey. Save it on your browser.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
How to open new relationships of mutual healing
How to build a holistic reentry plan together
How to navigate the prison system & local reentry barriers
How to integrate more of our community
We don’t go to the margins to “make a difference.” We go to the margins to be made different—as we experience exquisite mutuality among the most excluded.
—Father Greg Boyle, Homeboy Industries
TOOLS & TEAM ROLES
CONVENER
Sends meeting links and reminders
Coordinates modules and resources within team
Mails printed module to releasing friend
FACILITATOR
Moderates team meetings (See Monthly Meeting Format)
Notes Action Items’ progress and distribution
Files monthly Facilitator’s Report
BARD
Coordinates regular updates to congregation according to whichever current/new avenues exist
Link/loop/tag Underground Ministries
PASTORAL CARE
Holds team to Covenant and Welcoming Prayer
Care for team wounds and challenges that surface
Tap church leadership
Preaching and Commissioning Service
REMEMBER
Below is our suggested order of monthly learning modules for the two-year journey. However, every reentry and resurrection journey is different. Things happen. So, please familiarize yourself—often—with the entire menu of modules below.
As a team, feel free to jump ahead for a specific module that feels most needed any given month. (But, be sure to continue with the suggested order after that. And a new module every month until all are completed.) Always stick to the monthly meeting format, starting with Welcoming Prayer. When things feel off, come back to the Covenant together.
You got this.
LEARNING MODULES
-
BOOK 1: RELATIONSHIP WITH THE UNDERGROUND
-
THE LOST ART OF LETTER WRITING
Prison letters are how we start new relationships.
-
SUCCESS?
Our primary goal is not to fix someone. That turns our friend into a project, which has nothing to do with love.
-
THROUGH THE GATES
Navigating prison visits, phone calls, emails & our fears.
-
THE ART OF BUILDING TRUST
From the voices of our incarcerated friends: Trust creates an environment for healing.
-
BOUNDARIES & MONEY
Fostering healthy relationships as the journey expands.
-
WELCOMING PRAYER
We join the journey of transformation when we open the locked doors within ourselves.
-
-
BOOK 2: IDENTIFYING THE STONES & LAYERS
-
REENTRY PLANNING BEGINS: HOUSING
Building a personalized plan together.
-
THE STONES TO ROLL AWAY
Taking on the overwhelming obstacles of reentry, one at a time.
-
MASS INCARCERATION
In a society that disposes of humans, relationship interrupts the cycle.
-
TRAUMA & HEALING
Pain can isolate us or draw us into connection.
-
MENTAL HEALTH
It affects all of us, and connection is how we start healing.
-
ADDICTION
We all find ways to numb our pain and loneliness. Relationships and trust are the way out.
-
WRITING OUR WRONGS
“What was their crime?”
Storytelling goes both ways.
-
-
BOOK 3: ROLLING AWAY THE STONES
-
BOOK 4: GENTLY REMOVING THE LAYERS
-
THE MAGIC SEASON
Getting creative, delighting in the surprises, enjoying this time.
-
EMPLOYMENT
This is our most referenced module, so we wanted to include it here as a helpful resource to go over again.
-
WHEN THEY DISAPPEAR
We wait, and the story of the prodigal son story becomes more real.
-
NOT THE STORY WE WANTED
Resurrection means passing through a death -- or failure -- first.
-
-
BOOK 5: BEARING WITNESS TO THE RESURRECTION
-
RETHINKING INCARCERATION
Letting go of what destroys and renewing our imagination of God’s justice and restoration.
-
IS THIS JUST THE BEGINNING?
The program might be ending, but this opens the door to something new.
-
CAPSTONE PROJECT
Bearing witness to the ways you have approached the tombs of mass incarceration.
-