Please join us on Friday, March 31 and Saturday, April 1 for one or all of the sessions at Sabathani Auditorium.
See the award-winning film, "Road to Return", a documentary about Project Return, produced by Leslie Neale and John Densmore (former drummer of the legendary rock group The Doors), narrated by celebrated actor Tim Robbins.
"This touching documentary demonstrates that a more mature, compassionate approach to prison reform is not just the right thing to do—it's the smart thing to do."
–Best selling author
Nathan McCall
Participate in a discussion about why Project Return has been so successful when so many others fail. Find out about a proposal for a pilot program in the state of Minnesota for our most troubled youth, those most likely to end up in prison, the ones we throw away.
"Like a village at the edge of a cliff off of which our youth have been leaping into emptiness and despair, I see this proposal by Project Return for Minnesota as a necessary and hopeful approach to catching these youth and inspiring in them Life. Project Return's
purpose is in no way at odds with the useful initiatory understanding of native peoples and their ancestors. Everyone should come and listen."
—Martín Prechtel, author of “Secrets of the Talking Jaguar” and “Honey in the Heart: A Story of Initiation...”
"For every 50 men who enter Project Return's 90-day program, 350 on the waiting list are turned away for a lack of funds and facilities, but no one is turned away from prison, we just build more…instead of funding more "crime schools" we should create more Project Returns, reduce crime, save money, and restore hope."
—Aaron Kipnis, author of “Angry Young Men: How Parents, Teachers and Counselors Can Help 'Bad Boys' Become Good Men"
|
|
What is Project Return?
In 1989 Bob Roberts began research in the prisons of Louisiana with his wife Rosemary Mumm to study the effects of a technique known as "Community Building" on prisoner's literacy. He was so successful that a large consortium of business leaders in New Orleans funded a new after-prison program called Project Return.
Since it’s inception at Tulane University Medical Center in 1993, Project Return has provided over 1,800 men and women released from prison with a valuable and viable alternative to their previous life style. Through the Community Building component of the program, participants have found a safe environment in which to vent their frustrations, express their feelings, and develop trust. As a result, they have become less shameful and more respectful of themselves, of others, and of the differences in others, creating within themselves a greater determination to succeed.
Participants' achievements include: a) learning the essentials of Community Building, b) completing or working toward their GED, c) becoming aware of their addictions and beginning the process of recovery, d) communicating more effectively with their families, and e) having a chance at permanent employment. Project Return takes only those at highest risk, those most likely to go back to prison. Equipped with their new skills, the men and women who complete the course at Project Return have a more realistic chance of reintegrating successfully into free society.
Two-thirds of the Project Return staff are former inmates–only one of the reasons it has become “the most successful after-prison program in the country” according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Breaking the cycles of crime—it boasts an average recidivism rate of less than 25% after seven years—almost 3 times lower than the national average.
|
