In this issue: !e Heart of Volunteerism .............................. 1 Victim Impact Awareness Program ............... 1 Santa Visits MCI-Concord .............................. 2 Recreational Guitar Behind the Walls ........... 2 Nonviolent Communication:

Free Workshops on November 15th & 16th .. 2 Basic Computer Skills Class ................................3 Wisdom of the Ages ......................................... 3 Who We Are ..............................................................3 A Message of Gratitude from

Carol Peters, Executive Director ........................4 Request for Help: Holiday Programs 2014 .....4

!e Heart of VolunteerismI’ve been teaching in the prisons for over a decade, and every class is an adventure in learning about myself. When I walk into a new class behind the walls, I walk into a room full of strangers. !e men are as di"er-ent from me as you can imagine—all male, many di"erent races and languages, di"er-ent socio-economic backgrounds, di"erent generations. At #rst it might seem scary, but I know from experience that I walk into a room full of strangers today, and 12 weeks later, when I #nish my class, I will know and care deeply about each of them. And so we start the process of building the common ground of our humanity—what it is like to be human and how we can manage our thoughts and emotions so that we can live to the fullest within the limits of our humanity. I am always moved to realize how much we all have in common.

I’ve had many moving experiences over the years, but I want to share one story that captures some of the reason I keep return-ing to this work. In one of my classes, many years ago, I had a student who was tall and thin, wiry and strong, covered with tat-toos—the kind of person you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley at night. I noticed he

Concord Prison Outreach

Victim Impact Awareness Program (V.C.R.s in Prison)

Do you know what V.C.R. means? Does an outdated electronic device replaced by DVDs come to mind? Members of the new Victim Impact Awareness Program at MCI-Concord are learning a di"erent meaning: Validate, Challenge, Request.

Available to inmates who have previously participated in emo-tional literacy programs, including BEACON Emotional Aware-ness and Nonviolent Communication, this new class began its piloted round in September with volunteers Nora Wright (MRP) and Betty Case (PhD), and assisted by Carolyn Shohet. Its inten-tion is to provide inmates with the resources and learning space to understand their experiences as both victims and as perpetra-tors of violence. !e Victim Impact Awareness Program focuses, in particular, on restorative justice as one model for accountability that considers the voices of all people involved in violence.

Our texts for the course are Teens Who Hurt by Kenneth Hardy and Tracy Laszlo"y, and !e Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr. !ese books consider the ways in which we can empower all people to engage in the process of healing and making amends.

!e VCR approach suggests that when we seek to help people change their behavior, we have to start by Validating them and identifying their strengths. !e second part of the model is Challenging. We address the behavior that needs to be changed directly. !e #nal step is a Request. Requests invite someone to use the strengths we have identi#ed to make a signi#cant change

Fall Newsletter 2014

Helping the Incarcerated Since 1968

continued, page 2

Sometimes our light goes out, but is blown again into an instant !ame by an encounter with another human being. ~ Albert Schweitzer

continued, page 2

in response to our challenge. !is model sounds challenging; yet our students are already using it. Several weeks ago, one partici-pant used the VCR approach with a family member with success!

Indeed, the men are learning from each other and from us about tools and tips for validating, challenging, requesting, and taking responsibility. - Betty Case and Nora Wright

had an earpiece in his ear, and a$er the #rst class, I asked if he was listening to the radio. He said yes, and I suggested he leave the radio in his room in the future. I was a little chagrined when he showed up with the radio the following week. But I decided to let it go because it was too late to put someone else in the class, and if I sent him away, there would only be an empty seat. I always believed that you can’t sit in one of these classrooms with-out learning something, perhaps even while listening to the radio. Time went on. He was quiet and didn’t disrupt but didn’t participate. About half way through the class he started to talk, and I noticed the radio was gone. During the last class he told me, “When I #rst came to this class, I came to get the certi#cate to help my parole. I didn’t think I had anything to learn. What could anyone teach me? But about half way through, I realized how wrong I was. I have a lot to learn and I’m going to take every class I can get.” Who could ask for anything more from a volunteer experience? !e chance to connect with people about how we think and why we do what we do. !e chance to learn yet again what it means to be human. All of us, with all our strengths and vulnerabilities, in one complex and unique person, waiting to be discovered. - Carol Peters

Victim Impact Awareness Program, continued

Recreational Guitar Behind the WallsMost of the students in Recreational Guitar class are there for about a year, and I have been blown away, over and over again, at the progress they are able to make in one short year. Some of the guys come in there already knowing a lot, having picked up skills on the street. Others have literally never held a guitar in their hands before at all. But no matter where they are starting from, there is always someplace meaningful to go!We choose songs we can all play together at the same time—some guys hitting the basic chords and others doing more complex overlays. We usually sound a little wobbly the #rst few times through, but once we #nd the groove, things really take o".!ere is something uniquely special and transporting about creating music, live, in the moment. It is a soul-feeding thing, and when we get musical li$-o", we can all feel it. Sometimes we mess up and crack each other up. But other times, we #nd ourselves far beyond the prison walls—creating something powerful together. Suddenly, we’re soaring!A few of the guys have composed their own songs for us to play. One wrote a song to his daughter. We rehearsed and rehearsed it, and then he performed it for her live on the day he was released. Another inmate created a song I still sing to myself: I’m Gonna Clean Up What I Messed Up; Starting My Life All Over Again. Today he is outside the walls, living the truth of his song. - Anna Huckabee Tull

CPO Fall Newsletter 2014, page 2

!e Heart of Volunteerism, continued

Nonviolent Communication: Free Workshops on November 15th & 16thCome join us to develop skills in Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and learn more about our volunteer programs in the prisons:Saturday, November 15, 2014, 10 am - 5 pm Topic: NVC Principles Sunday, November 16, 2014, 10 am - 5 pm Topic: NVC community-building, advanced training, and strategic discussions about NVC programs in prison.

Attend one or both workshops. A detailed agenda and location information is available at concordprisonoutreach.org.

Email CPO@ConcordPrisonOutreach.org for more information and to register, or call 617-286-6728.

Santa Visits MCI-ConcordFor the past decade, Santa has come to the visiting room at MCI-Concord. A Concord Prison Outreach volunteer dresses up in a Santa suit and talks to the children who are visiting their fathers, uncles, or grandfathers at the prison. He gives each child a candy cane, and is available to have his picture tak-en with the child and their family. Some of the children want to know where Santa has parked his sleigh, and they enjoy telling him what they want for Christmas.

For the past three years, an elf has accompa-nied Santa. !e elf has a collection of books, and each child selects one to take home. !is program brings smiles to the faces of the inmates and visitors at a time of year when it can be di%cult for families to be apart. - Kai Shaner

Who We Are: Sta": Carol Peters, Executive Director • Holly Lapp, Administrative Assistant and Interim Outreach Coordinator Board of Directors: Mark Fingerle, Chair • Kai Shaner, Vice Chair • Richard Leaver, Treasurer • Karen Paradise, Recording Secretary • Karen Ippolito, Corresponding Secretary • Debbie Dormitzer • Jean Goulden • Alice Kaufman • Michael Krupa • Lanny Kutako" • Jay Luby • Don Miller

Steering Committee: Bruce Bailey • Karen Baratta • Betty Case • Mark Collett • Bob Cunningham • Lisa Daigle • Raju Datla • Jeannie Dorismond • Beverly Duncan • Larry Green • Allison Haar • Jonathan Hoch • Lynn Holbein • Stephen Kirk • June McKnight • Marsha Martin • Ken Meltz • Bruce Nickerson • Linda Reynolds • Marty Ryan • Nancy Shippen • Mino Sullivan • Chris Upton • Bob Watson • Dorothy Weitzman • Win Wilbur • Nora Wright

With Gratitude to our Supporting Faith Groups: Acton Congregational, Acton • Acton Monthly Meeting, Quaker, Concord • Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Belmont • Church of the Good Shepherd, Episcopal, Acton • Congregation Beth El, Jewish, Sudbury • Congregational Church, UCC, of Littleton • Congregational Church, UCC, of Weston • First Parish, UU, in Bedford • First Parish, UU, Chelmsford • First Parish, UU, in Concord • First Parish, UU, in Lexington • First Parish, UU/UCC, in Lincoln • First Parish, UU, of Stow and Acton • First Parish, UU, of Sudbury • First Religious Society, UU, in Carlisle • First Unitarian Society, UU, in Newton • Framingham Friends Meeting, Quaker, Framingham • Friends Meeting, Quaker, at Cambridge • Grace Baptist, Hudson • Grace Chapel, Lexington • Hancock UCC, Congregational, Lexington • Harvard, UU, Harvard • Holy Family Parish, Catholic, Concord • Kerem Shalom, Jewish, Concord • Memorial Congregational, UCC, Sudbury • New Church, Swedenborgian, Concord • Second Church, UCC, in Newton • SSJE Chapel, Jesuit, Cambridge • St. Anne’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal, Lincoln • St. Bridget Parish, Catholic, Maynard • St. Catherine of Alexandria, Catholic, Westford • St. Irene, Catholic, Carlisle • St. John Evangelical Lutheran, Sudbury • St. Matthew’s United Methodist, Acton • St. Paul’s Episcopal, Brookline • St. Peter’s Episcopal, Cambridge • South Acton Congregational, UCC, Acton • Sudbury United Methodist, Sudbury • Trinitarian Congregational, Concord • Trinity, Episcopal, Boston • Trinity Episcopal, Concord • United Church of Christ, Congregational, Boxborough • United Methodist, Newton • United Parish, UCC/Methodist/Baptist, in Brookline• West Concord Union, UCC, Concord

CPO Fall Newsletter 2014, page 3

Wisdom of !e AgesAt a meeting some months ago, each member of the CPO Board and Steering Committee was given a gi$. Lynn Holbein, a member of the Steering Committee, presented to each a colorful, postcard-sized work of her art with a quote from Rabindranath Tagore, Bengali poet and novelist. In 1913, Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. !e quote reads:

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted, and behold—service was joy.”

!is fall, I got back to tutoring math at NECC (“the farm”) a$er a hiatus of six months or so. At the end of the #rst a$ernoon back, I said to two sta" members, “I had forgotten how much I enjoy doing this.” My friend Rabindranath would have smiled. Maybe he did. - Don Miller

Basic Computer Skills ClassCPO has o"ered a course in Basic Computer Skills for several years at the Northeastern Correctional Center. Volunteers help the inmates learn Microso$ Word and Excel. Some of the men come to class with a work-ing knowledge of Word and Excel, while others need to learn how to use a keyboard.

!ere is no lecture; sessions are run as a tu-torial, where the men are given tasks and get help from CPO volunteers and each other. In 10 sessions of 90 minutes each, they learn more than basic skills; in fact they learn some skills beyond what a college student would know. Most of today’s jobs, whether working in a restaurant or repairing cars, requires computer skills.

!e men get a chance to experience both the frustrations of dealing with computers that are very in&exible, but also the satisfaction of seeing #nished work that is high quality. !ey have a chance to exercise that “le$ side” of their brain and many #nd it enjoyable.

I have found it rewarding to lead the class. !ere is always room for volunteers to assist or run a new session. - Tom Lemaire

With appreciation to the CPO newsletter team: Lisa Daigle (editor), Justin Dormitzer (graphic design)

Concord Prison OutreachPO Box 383, Concord, MA 01742

CPO@ConcordPrisonOutreach.orgwww.ConcordPrisonOutreach.org

978-369-1430

“I dreamt that lifewas joy.”

Concord Prison Outreach, Inc.PO Box 383Concord, MA 01742

A Message of Gratitude from Carol Peters, Executive DirectorI want to thank all who have contributed to our e"orts at CPO thru volunteerism, #nancial support, and the many projects that keep CPO thriving. We are truly blessed to have so many individuals and faith communities standing beside us in this ministry to help the incarcerated develop the skills they need to succeed when leaving prison. We come together with the steadfast belief that all human life is of value and that all deserve the opportunity to grow and become the best we can be. We work to provide these opportunities to the incarcerated.

!is has been a bountiful year for Concord Prison Outreach. We have 15 programs that are either new or restarting this fall, including a new Victim Impact Awareness program that helps the incarcerated understand the impact of their behavior, why they do the things they do, and how to make better choices. We have a team of volunteers teaching a new parenting skills class that helps men understand the needs of their children and develop skills to be better parents. We have a new support group for incarcerated veterans to help them deal with their unique issues—to name just a few.

CPO is grateful to the prison administration for providing needed classroom space and more orientations to get volunteers started quickly. We send our deepest thanks to Sup. !ompson, Dep. Sup. Bissonnette, Director of Treatment Kim Lincoln and Ellen Flaminio, Director of Classi#cation Joann Lynds, and DOT Assistant Bonnie Corsini for their tireless support of our e"orts.

We are also so grateful for your donations which give us the resources to develop new programs and recruit and train volunteers to work behind the wall. Your #nancial support is essential to providing the funds to buy textbooks and teaching materials for our programs, especially now, as we raise funds to cover the teaching materials we’ll need for our many new programs. !ank you.

CPO Fall Newsletter 2014, page 4

Holiday Programs 2014Request for Help: Holiday Gi" Bag Project Holiday Card MakingEach year, before Christmas, CPO assembles and distributes gi$ bags containing toiletry items, stationery, socks, and a holiday card for each inmate in the Northeastern Correctional Center and Massachusetts Cor-rectional Institution in Concord. More than 1700 holiday cards are handmade by caring members of the community! Please help us prepare these gi" bags.See the Newsletter Insert for details or visit: www.ConcordPrisonOutreach.org

Caroling Night at NECCCelebrate the joy of the holiday season at this annual event where inmates, adult community members, and prison sta" gather together. Friday, December 5, 2014 from 6:45 to 9:00 pmPlease register in advance by November 28th: Email your full legal name, driver’s license/state issued ID #, date of birth, and phone number to: Events@ConcordPrisonOutreach.org, or call 617-286-6728.

“If you’re feeling vaguely sad and aimless, ask not what is wrong but what your heart longs for.” ~ !omas Moore

The$2014$Holiday$Gift$Bag$Project$$

Again&this&year&the&Holiday&Gift&Bag&Project&will&bring&a&bit&of&hope&and&holiday&cheerfulness&to&each&of&the&inmates&in&Concord's&two&prisons.&&This&year&nearly&1700&gift&bags&will&be&needed.&&To&help,&here&is&what&you&need&to&know:&&&&The$list$of$gifts&approved&by&the&Department&of&Correction&is&the&same&as&last&year.&&As&always,&please&follow&the&specifications:&• 1&bar&of&deodorant&soap&(4&J&5&oz.)&• 1&plastic&bottle&of&shampoo&(12&J15&oz.)&• 1&stick&deodorant&(2.5&oz.&or&larger;&no&rollJons)&• 1&tube&toothpaste&(5.8&to&6.0&oz.)&• 1&pair&of&white&CREW&socks&(no&tube&socks,&kneeJhighs,&or&“tennis”&socks)&preferably&5&

inches&of&ribbing&or&less.&• 1&pad&WHITE&paper&6"x9"&or&5"x8",&100&pages&(no&wire)&• White&envelopes&3/4&&(6&1/2&"&x&3&5/8")&&&&• A&handJmade&holiday&greeting&card&with&an&uplifting&message.&&Note&that&no&type&of&glue&

or&tape&or&stickers&may&be&used.&&Please&see&ConcordPrisonOutreach.org&for&more&cardJmaking&instructions.&&&&

&We$welcome$donations&of&the&above&items&in&any&quantity.&&They&do&not&need&to&be&in&sets.&&Many&donors&give&multiple&units&of&one&item&on&the&list.&&All&donations&are&sorted,&and&each&gift&bag&is&assembled&by&volunteers.&&Cash$donations$are$also$welcome—they"enable&CPO&to&purchase&items&when&necessary.&&Your&taxJdeductible&check&should&be&made&out&to&“Concord&Prison&Outreach,”&earmarked&“Holiday&Gifts,”&and&mailed&to:&

Concord&Prison&Outreach,&Holiday&Gift&Bag&Project,&PO&Box&383,&Concord,&MA&01742.&&LOCATION:$$Again&this&year&the&Holiday&Gift&Bag&Project&will&be&in$Acton&at:&&&St.$Matthew’s$United$Methodist$Church,$435&Central&Street,&Acton,&MA&&01720&&&Easy$Directions:&&Take&Route&2&to&Exit&41&(just&4.7&miles&west&of&the&Concord&rotary.)&&Follow&the&sign&toward&W.&Acton&for&just&half&a&mile;&the&church&will&be&on&your&left.&&&&&&Gift&items&can&be&dropped&off&at&St.&Matthew’s&from&December&2nd&through&December&9th.&&&$$Adult$Volunteers$are&needed&on&weekday&mornings&from&Tuesday,&December&2nd&through&Friday,&December&12th,&9:00&am&to&12:00&noon.!&In&addition,&there&will&be&two&evening&sessions:&&Wednesday,&December&3rd&and&Tuesday,&December&9th,&from&7:00&to&9:00&pm.!!For&the&two&evening&sessions,&please&sign&up&in&advance.&&See&contact&information&below.&&For$information$or$to$volunteer,$please$contact:$Carol&Miller&&carolhmiller@comcast.net&or&978J369J3755,&or&&Nancy&Smith&&nancesmith@aol.com&or&781J894J5526&For&more&information&on&this&and&other&CPO&programs,&go&to&ConcordPrisonOutreach.org.&&Remember:!!A!holiday!gift!bag!is!kindness!tied!with!a!colorful!ribbon.!!And!think!about!this:!!!most!inmates!will!be!released!eventually.!!Wouldn’t!it!be!good!for!them!to!know!that!there!are!good=hearted!people!on!the!outside!who!think!about!them!and!care?!!

www.ConcordPrisonOutreach.org

Concord Prison Outreach

Where does peace begin? “We all carry within us places of exile, our crimes, our ravages. Our task is not to unleash them on the world; it is to transform them in ourselves and others.” ~ Albert Camus

Thank You for supporting our volunteer-led programs. Due to our success in adding 15 new programs this year, CPO faces special challenges to pay for books and teaching materials to support our volunteers. Please consider supporting us so we can grow these programs. Because we are a volunteer organization, your donations go a long way to providing these services.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - Please return this section with your donation - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yes, I’d like to contribute $_______ toward CPO’s mission of helping the incarcerated.

Your name:

Address:

City, State, Zip:

Email address (optional):

This donation is in memory/in honor of:

Please make your check payable to Concord Prison Outreach, and mail to: PO Box 383, Concord, MA 01742

We appreciate your tax-deductible support. Concord Prison Outreach is a 501(c)(3) non-religious charity.