Leave No Woman Behind: Stories to Build Strength and Kindness
Empowerment Symposium 2019

This program uses a two pronged approach to educated women in prison about the need to engage with each other and with corrections officers while inside, and with parole officers once released. The program will deliver literature detailing stories from criminalised women who have exited the criminal justice system, and will provide examples of successful outcomes of other rehabilitation programs. Secondly, the program will provide criminalised women outside of the criminal justice system access to creative writing and public speaking workshops to develop skills in communication, and the tools to create a support resource publication, to be distributed to the program’s audience.

The program will benefit:
women in prison, who currently have limited access to support material to assist with their incarceration.
Recently released women, who may have limited skills in writing and public speaking, and therefore have limited confidence in their abilities to effectively communicate
Those affected by criminalised women:
-the children and families from whom women are separated upon their incarceration, who may have experienced the disadvantages of a criminalised woman’s lack of engagement with corrections and parole officers
-the community, who may have been repeatedly exposed to a cycle of criminalised behaviour

The program will provide education for women currently in prison, in the form of increased understanding of the need to develop positive relationships with each other, with corrections officers and with proper engagement of the Community Corrections system upon release. We anticipate an increase in engagement with community engagement programs (parole, Seeds Of Affinity), with a long-term commitment to reducing rates of recidivism.

SOA is an established community organisation with many ongoing projects. This project is new and currently does not receive any funding.