Making Choices
"I chose to take this program because I noticed for years that
the women who complete this program don't come back to prison."
-- A Making Choices Graduate
What is Making Choices?
The Making Choices program teaches decision-making and
life-planning skills to women incarcerated at Denver Women’s Correctional
Facility (DWCF), and is sponsored and facilitated by the Center for Spirituality
at Work (CFSAW). CFSAW trains business and professional women volunteers
to mentor incarcerated women through the ten-week course, and trains professional
teachers in the Making Choices curriculum to volunteer as teachers for
the course.
Since 1999, Making Choices has brought together over 500 incarcerated women with volunteer teachers and mentors to assist them in acquiring and using these new skills as they prepare to bring their gifts and talents back to the community. Making Choices’ goal is to teach women to make better decisions and to stay out of prison once released, to ensure that their children don’t get caught in an intergenerational cycle of crime, and to change societal attitudes by helping people to understand how we all benefit when former offenders successfully return to the community.
Why is Making Choices necessary?
The ability to identify, assess, and decide from alternative choices is
a foundational skill, making it possible for women to take advantage
of educational, employment, housing and other opportunities to build
a new life for themselves and their children. Incarcerated women often
come from underprivileged, abusive, or drug-laden backgrounds where they
had little opportunity to learn how to make positive decisions. Instead
they tend to:
- React impulsively
- Flee difficult situations by using alcohol or other drugs
- “Float along,” letting others decide for them.
Women’s
decisions are made within the context of significant relationships. The
mentor helps her partner relate the decision-making process to all her
daily decisions so that eventually it is internalized and becomes part
of her normal way of responding to difficult and challenging situations.
Through the teaching and mentoring relationships, both volunteers and their
partners at the prison mutually benefit, stereotypes are broken, and understanding
of the challenges incarcerated women face increases, which leads to a healthier,
safer, more caring society for all.
Did You Know?
In 1970 there were slightly more than 5,600 women in state and federal
prisons across the United States. By 1996 there were nearly 75,000—a
thirteen-fold increase. This reality has effects on the next generation.
Children of incarcerated women are 5-6 times more likely to become incarcerated
than other children who live in poverty but whose mothers were never
incarcerated.
Our Impact
The recidivism rate for Making Choices graduates is just 12%, versus 48%
for those who do not participate in this program. With this track record
of 88% success after graduation, Making Choices graduates are leading
productive lives and reuniting with family and friends. Many give back
to the community by speaking for the Center for Spirituality at Work’s
Women’s Voices program, which educates the community about the
Making Choices program and about issues facing incarcerated women.
How Does Making Choices Work?
The 8-week structured course takes place at DWCF twice yearly, in March/April
(Spring Session) and September/October (Fall Session). The course includes:
- Weekly classes taught by trained volunteer teachers using a nationally-recognized
curriculum
- Weekly, one-on-one mentoring sessions with a trained volunteer mentor, where each incarcerated student practices applying the concepts learned in class to her own life’s situations
Making Choices offers each incarcerated student tools to:
- Identify and acknowledge her feelings
- Change her responses to different situations (learning to decide vs.
react)
- Get in touch with personal values and set goals accordingly
- Examine her self-image and recognize herself as a woman of worth and
value
- Gain more control over her life in both immediate and long-term situations
How Do Volunteers Fit In?
Women wishing to become mentors or teachers for Making
Choices receive
training from both the Center for Spirituality at Work (CFSAW) and the
Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC). CFSAW conducts retreat training
weekends for new volunteers twice yearly, in February and August. Included
in this retreat training weekend is the 8-hour CDOC Basic Volunteer Training.
After the weekend retreat, new volunteers also attend a 2 hour site-specific
training at DWCF. Application deadlines for new volunteers are in early
July (for fall session) and mid-January (for spring session).
The volunteer teachers conduct a 2-hour class each week in teaching teams of two teachers per class, ensuring a teacher to student maximum ratio of 1:6. The teachers also facilitate the graduation ceremony. Each volunteer mentor meets with her incarcerated partner one hour per week throughout the ten-week course and attends the graduation ceremony, where she awards a diploma to her graduating partner. Ongoing individual supervision and a mid-session group supervision meeting provide support for mentors. Volunteers commit to serve for two ten-week sessions, which may be in one calendar year or spread over two years.
| Mentors | Click here to download the Spring 2012 New Mentor’s Schedule |
| Click here to download the Spring 2012 Mentor’s Application Packet |
| Teachers | Click here to download the Spring 2012 New Teacher’s Schedule |
| Click here to download the Spring 2012 Teacher’s Application Packet |
How is the Program Evaluated?
Our 12-member Advisory Board is composed of graduates from our Making
Choices program, experienced mentors, and experts who are professionals in related
fields such as restorative justice, addictions and recovery, and marketing.
Some of the Making Choices graduates on our Advisory Board are still
incarcerated and others have now been released. The Advisory Board meetings
are held three times each year. Because the Center so values the input
of our graduates, one meeting per year is held within the correctional
facility to allow these women to participate. Advisory Board members
provide input on program content and the issues faced by female offenders
and those who have been recently released.
For additional information,
or to have an application packet
sent to you via US mail, please contact:
Making Choices Coordinator
Phone: 303-383-1610
E-Mail
