By Dalton Greene | Communications Intern
Hello and happy summer from Free Minds! As we cross the midway point of 2024, Free Minds members have continued to grow and thrive upon reentry, building valuable community connections, developing and utilizing job readiness skills, and acting as strong, successful leaders in Washington, DC and beyond. In the past few months, we were thrilled to invite Poet Ambassadors and volunteers to our first in-person Write Night since 2020, deepening community connections over the healing power of poetry. 14 members graduated from our Job Readiness and Personal Skill-Building Apprenticeship, which covered a wide range of topics to prepare members for fulfilling employment opportunities. And we were thrilled to be joined by Dr. Frank Smith to commemorate Juneteenth with our Black History Learning Group. Across the board, our members have been focused on embracing their roles as leaders and positive changemakers in the community!
Free Minds Members and Local Community Come Together for Poetry Exchange
On July 9, a group of 20 formerly incarcerated Free Minds members (known as Poet Ambassadors) connected with the community at our On the Same Page: Write Night event. Our Write Nights provide space for members and community volunteers alike to gather, get to know one another, and read and respond to poetry written by our incarcerated members. The poems filled with comments are then mailed to federal prison facilities. Poet Ambassadors like Antoine were present to connect with volunteers and share how valuable receiving feedback on their poetry was for them while they were incarcerated. Antoine shared the importance of this supportive community in his poem, “Where I Belong,” which he read for the group:
Heard something about ‘Write Night,’ I found a spot and sat down
Powerful words filled my ears, profound enough to draw tears
Deep expressions of what I’ve felt in my heart all of these years
Seeing I am not alone encouraged me to stay strong
Not in a hallway, but in a room of poets is where I belong
It was an emotionally moving evening, with Free Minds Poet Ambassadors strengthening their connections to a supportive community. Sitting at tables together with community members, they leveraged essential elements to reentry, including relationship building and networking, while also supporting fellow Free Minds members still incarcerated.
14 Free Minds Members Complete Job Readiness and Personal Skill Building Apprenticeship
In June, we hosted a robust Job Readiness and Personal Skill-Building Apprenticeship, which emphasized vital skills for members navigating searches for jobs and housing, and connected members with local social services. Apprenticeship participants spent a day at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library in DC, where member Charles gave them a tour of the facilities, a presentation on its programming and resources, and assistance signing up for library cards.
Following this, members learned from guest speakers about topics from practical skills like financial literacy and social media safety to “soft” skills like effective communication and collaboration. Free Minds member Colie, who came home from prison in 2022, also spoke with the apprentices about facing setbacks and maintaining resilience as they navigate reentry, drawing on his own personal experiences. This session was especially powerful, and gave our members successful tips for working through roadblocks in all areas of their lives. And as always, members received tailored support on resume writing and interview prep to bolster their individual job searches.
At the conclusion of the apprenticeship, members received completion certificates recognizing their efforts and concrete knowledge to help them find stable, fulfilling employment and leverage their unique skills in their communities!
Black History Learning Group
To commemorate Juneteenth, Dr. Frank Smith, civil rights activist and founding member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), visited with members in our Black History Learning Group, which was launched in 2020. The group meets monthly to discuss and expand their knowledge of Black history in the United States in community and collaboration. For our June meeting, members talked with Dr. Smith about his early involvement in desegregation and voter drives, and his role as a founder of DC’s famous African-American Civil War Memorial Museum. As he shared his lifelong commitment to civil rights and his work to preserve Black history, members engaged in a meaningful dialogue about continuing carrying his work into the future. After the session, several members volunteered to read names of African American soldiers who were killed in the Civil War at the African American Civil War Memorial Museum’s Juneteenth celebration, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States.
Free Minds Members On the Job
As always, we want to leave some room to celebrate some of our members’ recent job successes. Here are some highlights from the last few months:
Daniel has been working for a golf course in DC, and he has worked his way up to a supervisory position. Daniel works hard to meet guests’ needs, maintain the grounds, and oversee a team of employees, who think he’s a great boss!
Ricardo has taken a job in local transit, providing public transportation to folks getting around the greater DC area. Thanks to dedicated workers like him, hundreds of people get where they need to go each day!
Jamal and Ronald have taken positions as baristas at a local coffee chain, which offers flexible positions and skills training to employees without running punitive background checks. Both members have enjoyed their positions, helping customers start their days right!
Cordell is working at a retail chain and enjoying providing outstanding customer service to his guests, while Junie received a promotion to Warehouse Manager!
All these successes and more are made possible every day by our generous donors, and we’re grateful for the support and encouragement you provide for our members. We’re looking forward to celebrating all the victories, big and small, to come for our members in these next few months!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
