At a glance:
The John Howard Society of Manitoba (JHSM) provides services and programming for men 18+ who have been, or may be, incarcerated. JHSM works with a team of 22 to support their clients in everything from literacy education to parenting courses and anger management programming. JHSM also does significant advocacy work, promoting approaches to crime reduction and healthy communities that are both humane and evidence-based.
The literacy connection:
To John Howard, namesake of the JHS and a prison reformer from the 1700's, literacy was a way to bring people out of poverty. Accordingly, literacy education has always been an important part of JHSM's work. 1.5 staff work exclusively with their literacy program.
"Literacy is a basic human right," says Sharon Perrault, Manager of Programs. When cultivated, literacy can lead to significant positive change. "There's a huge link between increasing education and decreasing recidivism rates. When you improve your education, you improve your prospects, confidence, and abilities." This is particularly important in the community JHSM serves: 80% of the incarcerated men they work with grew up in poverty, are unemployed, and haven't completed high school.
JHSM's general literacy program is hosted in the Winnipeg Remand Centre. Their volunteers come in once a week to work one-on-one with learners to work towards their goals.
Programs of note:
JHSM created its Peer Tutor program after strategic planning revealed the significant gaps in literacy programming within correctional institutions. Inmates engaged in JSHM's one-on-one program often have their instruction interrupted by overcrowding or transfers between institutions. Their learning is also limited by volunteer access, as sessions can't be held more than once a week. A constant in correctional institutions, however, is inmates helping each other with literacy tasks: filling out request forms, writing letters home, reading the newspaper. JHSM created their Peer Tutor program to address the instructional gap with that community strength. JHSM would train interested inmates to be peer literacy tutors. This way, peer tutors could bring literacy education out of the structured correctional institution programming and into the inmates' daily life, while also learning mentorship skills and sharpening their own literacy.
Peer tutors receive 18 hours of class training in subjects like Learning Styles, Goal Setting, and Cultural Teaching, as well as traditional literacy topics like Reading, Writing, and Grammar. Once they've completed the training, they're matched with another inmate for 3-7 hours a week of tutoring.
"Participants join the program for many reasons," explains Katherine Johnston, Literacy Instructor. "They may want to be able to help their children excel at school, or to upgrade their own skills and pursue post-secondary education, or to make a difference by helping their peers."
Life-long learning:
The staff at JHSM haven't forgotten about their own learning. "To continuously augment and improve our work," says Sharon, "we need to be mindful of the population we're serving." Right now, 70% of the men they work with are of indigenous descent. This means more education for their non-indigenous staff.
Katherine has just completed "A Journey from Cultural Awareness to Cultural Competency," a four-day training offered by the Aboriginal Education Directorate. It looked at ways to incorporate cultural traditions into teaching plans so they become foundational to program delivery and the teaching lives of instructors. Katherine and her volunteers do some of this already. "Many of our clients had negative experience in mainstream schools," she explains. "Every tutoring session, we begin with a sharing circle. It's an opportunity for connection, and helps our clients feel safe and supported."
Coming up next:
JHSM is hoping to expand their literacy program to the larger community as well as to clients in segregation. This expansion, of course, requires securing additional funding. JHSM is continuing to build rapport with funders and donors alike to help extend their good work to those in need.
Want to learn more? Check out their website, Twitter or Facebook page.
