Lay Led GroupsWomen in Prison & Their Families

Since 2001, UCH has been Helping Women and Their Families by:

  • A Time & Paper Management class at The Program for Female Offenders once a month. Contact Alice Winner to sign up to help. Ask volunteers Lisa Acri, Cynthia Tyger, George and Joan Hellmann, Marilyn McHenry or Dick Hoke what it was like.
  • Another life skill that needs to be taught is basic computer usage. The course content has already been developed - contact Jim Cavenaugh if you can help.
  • A Working Clothes/Working Women Clothing Bank. Seasonal clothing is always a need, especially in large sizes.
  • The Underwear Fund. When new women arrive at Promise Place they often have only the clothes they are wearing. Just put your check in the collection plate at church, and on the memo line put Underwear Fund.
  • The Patriot News Classified Ads are collected each Sunday and taken to the women so that they can look for employment. We also need volunteers to help take the newspapers to The PROGRAM at 1515 Derry Street, Harrisburg.
  • UCH members attend meetings of the Dauphin County Prison board, held at the Central Court Hearing Room of Dauphin County Prison (near Toys 'R' Us at the Harrisburg Mall). UCH representatives help by speaking up about issues at the prison - currently overcrowding is a problem.
  • Transporting the women from Promise Place to the monthly Community Connections (re-entry) Breakfasts. The location of the Breakfast rotates between Harrisburg area churches on Saturday mornings. The Prison Action Committee (PAC) of Christian Churches United sponsors these monthly breakfasts to help re-entering women and men get in touch with supporting people, ministries, and agencies. If you can drive women from Promise Place or Woodside Family Center, please contact Chris Dutton.

FAQs:

Who are the women in prison?

They are women who are in Dauphin County Prison or DCP, which is about two miles from here, women in the DCP work release center called Woodside Family Center which is operated by the PROGRAM for Female Offenders, and women living in Promise Place, which is also operated by the PROGRAM as a sort of halfway house, an alternative living facility for women just out of prison who are trying to turn their lives around. They must apply to be accepted to Woodside or Promise Place, and there is generally a waiting list.

What are/were they in for?

We don't ask, but sometimes they volunteer. Generally, anyone sentenced to more than two years goes into the state prisons, so women at DCP are generally in for simple assault, drug charges, prostitution or some combination of these offenses.

Can I meet one of them without going into prison?

Through a number of special events, such as the annual soup and bread lunch at Promise Place each September. speakers both from the prison system as well as former inmates, organizing Christmas gifts, attending meetings, teaching life skills courses such as budget management, teaching reading, computer skills and writing courses, driving them to the PAC breakfasts and helping other organizations that help those seeking to re-enter society.

To find out what WIPF is doing each month, check The REPORTER.

Here is a Powerpoint presentation of The PROGRAM

Questions?

Contact Margaret Carrow, Jim Cavenaugh, John Hargreaves, Dick Hoke, or Christine Dutton for more information.

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