If you’ve ever watched Orange is the New Black, you’ll be familiar with the difficulties faced by the show’s characters when they try to re-enter society after a stay in prison.
In this case, life does imitate art — those faced with inadequate support networks outside prison all too often return to the social circles and lifestyles that led them there in the first place.
Kitchener social-justice organization Community Justice Initiatives (CJI) has developed a program to help. Called Stride Circles, it trains community volunteers to meet regularly with inmates serving time at the Grand Valley Institution for Women. Once these relationships are built, the volunteers are able to serve as a circle of support when the women are released. The circle not only helps with practical issues like housing, schooling and employment, it also provides a new and positive social environment.
Our Recreation and Leisure Studies department has been involved with Stride for many years, and Associate Professor Heather Mair is now running a project to formally evaluate the Circle program’s success. “Anecdotally, CJI can see the circles are making a difference, and have huge potential to help other communities,” explains Heather. “The time was right for a formal study to evaluate their effect.”
Heather is working with Associate Professor Steven Mock and several grad students on this study, which runs until 2018. “The final report won’t be ready until 2019, but preliminary findings indicate women with circles report lower stress, higher personal growth and stronger family relationships, when compared to a control group of women released without circles,” says Heather.
Funding for the study and for the Stride Program comes from the National Crime Prevention Centre, an arm of Public Safety Canada.
For further information, email Heather Mair.
