ReConnect Leadership Training Program

Application and Flyer

In 2003, the Women in Prison Project launched ReConnect, a leadership training program for women who have recently returned home from prison or jail. ReConnect's goals are to provide adult women with a history of incarceration an opportunity to gain leadership and problem-solving skills, identify issues that affect their lives and communities, and understand ways they can create positive change both at the personal and systemic level.

The Project has implemented two sessions of ReConnect thus far. Both sessions ran for approximately 10 weeks and included 12 participants, all of whom had returned home in the last two years. Women in residential and outpatient programs, as well as those not involved with re-entry programs are invited to apply.

ReConnect's curriculum is based on popular education methodologies that seek to integrate participatory exercises and substantive information. The Program provides education on issues that affect people with a criminal history such as employment, substance abuse, and child custody and interactive exercises that illustrate various ways to work toward personal growth and political reform. The curriculum also includes an artistic component, designed to supply participants with creative forms through which to express themselves, make personal connections and develop leadership skills.

Recidivism is often the result of the inadequate support systems women encounter upon re-entry. ReConnect aims to facilitate formerly incarcerated women's ability to build their own support networks through becoming involved in various community activities, and to give women an opportunity to recognize their own power to advocate for themselves and others, and understand why their participation in the public arena is vital to the effort to oppose harmful and regressive criminal justice policies.

The Project believes that formerly incarcerated people should be in the forefront of the movement to challenge criminal justice policies that devastate low-income communities and communities of color. ReConnect works to develop a group of formerly incarcerated leaders who have the tools to use their own experiences to organize effectively and advocate for change. Through this program, participants can make their community re-entry successful and empowering.

For more information, please contact ReConnect Program Director Andrea Williams, 212-254-5700 or email the Correctional Association.