For Prisons

Interested In Bringing The Write Of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars to Your Correctional Facility?

The Write of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars is a cultural arts program and curriculum that engages and mentors individuals impacted by incarceration who are affected by abuse, crime, trauma, victimization, and other hardships and promotes healing and self-expression through the arts.
This program has been a success in correctional institutions around Southern California. Complete this form to schedule a call and we will discuss your options for bringing The Write Of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars cultural arts program to your institution.

    Providing

    Arts in Corrections

    The Write of Your L!fe™, a curricula created by Women Wonder Writers (WWW), has teamed up with California Arts Council through its Arts in Corrections initiative, to bring The Write of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars to correctional facilities throughout California. This program uses poetry, songwriting, spoken word, and painting as catalysts for building resiliency and restoring individuals affected by incarceration and their families. Trauma-informed facilitators assist students through a transformative process for how they examine and approach life and consider different perspectives about incarceration, family, employment and community dynamics.

    How Does it Work?

    “Beyond Bars” refers to The Write of Your L!fe™ arts-based workshops, projects, and courses offered in prisons, jails, juvenile detention centers, reentry, restorative justice, or diversion programs. Possible art forms include visual, literary and performing arts.

    This workshop is an introduction to the fundamentals of visual arts, designed for students with little or no previous experience in making art, yet wish to explore painting and elements of art, such as line, shape, space, and basic color theory.

    In The Write of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars, students complete a multitude of writing and expressive art projects culminating into a group art show and poetry book publication.

    For those qualifying disciplinary-free students, there will be an opportunity to send artworks to family members and/or participate in a family paint date OUR P’ART OF PARENTHOOD to promote familial support and reunification.

    This workshop is an introduction to the fundamentals of poetry, designed for students with little or no previous experience in creative writing, yet wishes to explore elements of writing and poetry fundamentals, including poetic structures, individual poetic voice, rhyme and free verse.

    In The Write of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars, students complete a multitude of writing and expressive art projects culminating into a poetry reading and publishing a group poetry anthology.

    For those qualifying disciplinary-free students, there will be an opportunity to send artworks to family members and/or participate in a family paint date OUR P’ART OF PARENTHOOD to promote familial support and reunification.

    This workshop is an introduction to the fundamentals of theater (skits, ensemble monologue and/or spoken word), designed for students with little or no previous experience in performing arts, yet wish to explore elements of poetry fundamentals along with basic tips and techniques for theater, including act structure, plot points, conflict, tension, dialogue, speech, tone, voice.

    In The Write of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars, students complete a multitude of writing and expressive art projects culminating into a skit, ensemble monologue and/or spoken word performance and publishing a group poetry anthology.

    For those qualifying disciplinary-free students, there will be an opportunity to send artworks to family members and/or participate in a family paint date OUR P’ART OF PARENTHOOD to promote familial support and reunification.

    Funding

    Arts in Corrections is a partnership between the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the California Arts Council designed to have a positive impact on the social and emotional well-being of people experiencing incarceration, promoting healing and interpersonal transformation both inside and outside of the boundaries of their institutions. California’s Arts in Corrections program is made possible by funding from the Division of Rehabilitative Programs at CDCR.

    Program Outcomes

    Expected outcomes align with California Art Council and CDCR, including implementing art classes with teaching artists, rehabilitative and trauma-informed programs, promoting positive prison climate and safety, along with family unification. Outcomes also include demonstrating a collaborative partnership striving to best support inmates and sites.

    What to Expect

    Correctional institutions who contract with The Write for Your L!fe can expect the following:

    1.

    Your Facility Enters into an Agreement with Women Wonder Writers to Facilitate The Write of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars

    Women Wonder Writers will establish a relationship with facility site staff, including any Community Resource Manager(s), Liaisons and or Sponsors, meeting with your facility’s educational and program staff as well as the correction staff. Our staff will get familiarized with your facility’s unique rules, policies and procedures relating to multiple subjects including sexual harassment prevention, safety, attire, and emergency protocol. These are regularly incorporated into its training procedures internally, in addition to Title 15, including the rules, policies and procedures for all WWW staff who are entering or associated with the specific correction facility. Our team will also work with the CRM or liaison at your site to coordinate necessary items prior to the start date of the program.

    2.

    The Write of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars 12-Week Program Commences

    Women Wonder Writers will dispatch its trained and cleared facilitators on the agreed-upon start date, to meet once weekly for 2-3 hours with a group of 12 students. They will facilitate The Write of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars to build resiliency: hope, peer and family support, empathy, healthy expression, and self-esteem.

    3.

    Program Culmination

    At the 12th workshop, facility staff and authorized student family members are invited to the culmination ceremony, where we present the students with pre-approved printed copies of their published group anthology containing the art and writing they completed over the 12 weeks. Students perform their group empathy project in their selected art-medium (i.e., poetry reading, short play, song, spoken word, visual art show, ensemble monologue.) For those qualifying disciplinary-free students, there will be an opportunity to send artworks to family members and/or participate in a family paint date OUR P’ART OF PARENTHOOD to promote familial support and reunification.

    Who can Host a Program?

    The Write of Your L!fe™ has been served in detention facilities in Southern California including Riverside Juvenile Hall, Riverside County Southwest Juvenile Hall, Crogan Youth Treatment and Education Center, California City Correctional Facility, California State Prison, and Centinela. WWW has the ability to directly serve any prison, jail, juvenile detention center, reentry, restorative justice, or diversion program within Southern California, and train facilitators to implement the The Write of Your Life ~ Beyond Bars program outside of Southern California.

     

    WWW is a supporter of the Women Working in Corrections and Juvenile Justice (WWICJJ) national conference, having presented at the 2018 edition held in Sacramento and is scheduled to present at the 2020 edition, which will be held October 18-21, 2020 in Savannah, Georgia, which is hosted by the Georgia Department of Corrections.

    Interested in programming to complement The Write of Your L!fe™ ~ Beyond Bars?

    Women Wonder Writers offers additional programing designed to give participants an immersive experiential experience of the root of the problems they face.

    • What educators are saying…

      “The students are really enjoying the class and you and Allison are definitely making a difference in their lives. Everyone at the site is noticing a change in them. Thank you so much for everything.”

      Chelsea Schweer
      Innovation High School Tutor

    • What educators are saying…

      "I noticed the girls are truly invested in your program, we observed all the support you provide for them and think it’s tremendous."

      Michele Worth
      Visual Arts Instructor

    • What educators are saying…

      "I'm really proud of the work the students produced this semester in The Write of Your L!fe."

      Scott Jacobs
      Instructor of Expository Reading and Writing, Gateway College and Career Academy