Visit to Lunenburg Correctional Facility
The purpose of each visit myself and my colleagues will make
to various prisons is to afford the individuals associated with the Guilford
College Higher Education in Prison Initiative to observe and participate in
hands-on, experiential learning and teaching methods with students and
administration in a correctional environment. The information gathered at each facility will
be fruitful in establishing a well-rounded and diverse approach to best
practices and sustainability in our efforts.
One of the most enlightening experiences I have had has been
the opportunity to see the unmasking and
pure human connection of individuals within the classroom. There is a sense of
belonging, a healing element that education brings to everyone involved in its
dynamics; students feel the power of the greatest weapon is their spoken word,
that the bleeding of their pen pumps life into their mind, reaffirming their own
existence.
And the most beautiful element of education is its
reciprocity. I have found in each visit, each conversation, in each lesson holds
the power to transform. The students I have met have inspired me, they have
been my teachers. They continually push me to test my own assumptions of
perception and to challenge others to test their own. It is amazing that so
many people tend to believe that inmates are so removed from the outer society
that they have nothing to contribute to the greater good because they are
surrounded by fences.
Nothing can be further from the truth. Sometimes the ones
closest are the ones furthest removed.
At Lunenburg, the students involved with the Campus Within
Walls Program are earning degrees and certificates to successfully enter back
into society with academic and hands on know-how. The students enrolled into the program live
in a dormitory style housing unit where they have the opportunity to live,
study and learn with fellow students who see the same value in education. Once
having successfully completed courses some of the students move on to tutor
other students. The principal of the Campus Within Walls program, Dr. Ann
Cavan, has been so impressed with the knowledge and efforts her students have
shown ,she has even hired a few to be in house teaching assistants and paid
tutors.
Subsequently, a program within the Campus Within Walls
program developed designed to target at risk youth in the surrounding Virginia
area community. Make it Happen is a mentoring program aimed at bringing in
students at the Southside Virginia Community College (SVCC) to Lunenburg
Correctional Facility. The partnership between SVCC and Lunenburg opens up
dialogue between students. Components of the program includes monthly meetings
at the correctional facility, book reviews from selected authors and guest
speakers who were once inmates, now living in the community. Students at the
Lunenburg Facility are active members involved in their community, even behind
the obvious barriers of razor fences and iron bars.
The impact of participant involvement from the program has
had tremendous effects to moral, social and rehabilitative aspects of community
problem solving and community building on the facility campus, college and
surrounding community. Make it Happen program participants consistently meet
and exceed anticipated program outcomes related to academic achievement as
measured by grade point average, retention, and persistence towards goals.
Because the inmates are in a confined environment and cannot be involved in day
to day efforts on the larger community, per se, it was decided they could
contribute to community service projects that could be channeled through the Make
It Happen on-campus students. Bird houses,
bat houses, coloring books and writing anthologies are produced and sold for
fund raising efforts for numerous Virginia community-related issues.
The intention of this component is to give Make it Happen
students and inmates the opportunity to give back to the community, foster a
sense of connection and slowly eradicate the misconceptions that all people in
prison are “bad” people.
Connection is the reason why we are all here; it is what
gives purpose to our lives. Shame, fear of disconnection, and the sense of
unworthiness haunts everyone in a daily struggle, these elements try to pry us
away from connection to one another. I have found it a sense of obligation to
myself, my generation, my community, my children, those who are victims and
those incarcerated to bring awareness and advocate for methods of personal and
social revival by means of education; to have the courage to face our
imperfections, to connect through authenticity, to fully embraced our
vulnerabilities and to have compassion for not only ourselves but others.
And with education as our tool, we all have the opportunity
to learn and grow…and pay it forward.
“Those having torches will pass them on to others” -Plato
The below link will take you to a video reclection of the visit! Enjoy
