WONDERFUL PRISON PROGRAM USING COUPLE COMMUNICATION
Ron and Catherine Tijerina, two Certified Couple Communication Instructors in Ohio, work with inmates and their families through The RIDGE Project. For several years now, they and others at The Ridge have taught Couple Communication I and II together with a program called Keeping FAITH: Keeping Families And Inmates Together in Harmony – with phenomenal results. Ron and Cathy shared the following information about their programs in the piece below.
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Couple Communication is an integral part of the Keeping FAITH program that has been shown to reduce recidivism by 62% in Ohio! (For new Federal grants, programs must be able to show that they will reduce recidivism by 50% over the next three-five years.) The program has been taught in 14 Ohio prisons and has served 1,500 families.
Over the past three years, The RIDGE Project, Inc. has been providing Couple Communication as a key part of their fatherhood and family strengthening re-entry programs. When couples learn to communicate in a healthy way, they can navigate through the underlying issues that led to the incarceration and get to the root problems. As a result, when the incarcerated partner returns home, the family possesses the tools and skills they need to overcome the culture of incarceration so they are equipped for permanent, healthy and successful reintegration into their homes and families. When an ex-offender can successfully re-enter their home, they can more easily re-enter society. This helps create safer communities.
The success of Keeping FAITH has been featured in a publication by the US Department of HHS, A Review of Select Grantee Profiles and Promising Results. By reaching families in the midst of -- or recovering from -- incarceration, Couple Communication in combination with Keeping FAITH has produced results that have been truly astounding:
The following is taken from TheRidgeProject.com website describing the Keeping FAITH program.
Statistics show that if a man can successfully re-enter his family, then he can successfully re-enter society. So we begin with a six-week course (Couple Communication I) that teaches our fathers how to effectively communicate with their spouses and/or mother of their children and their children. In the RIDGE Project, Inc. the incarcerated father's partner can take a class with him on a recurring basis.
After the six-week course is completed, we work exclusively with the fathers for teaching the fathers to own responsibility for their actions, and prepare them to overcome the obstacles of their incarceration and transition back into their homes and communities successfully and permanently. Upon successful completion of this session, a father earns the title of TYRO, which means a warrior, or someone learning something new. These fathers now stand as warriors for their families, defending their children and their legacies and embracing their role as father as the highest call on their life.
We then bring spouses back in for a six-week advanced communication classes (Couple Communication II) where we teach conflict resolution, anger management and relationship stability.
For more information on how you can develop a successful family strengthening re-entry program, visit: http://www.theridgeproject.com and click on the Re-Entry tab for more information or the Training/Resources tab for training dates and information.
Interpersonal Communication Programs, Inc.
30772 Southview Drive, #200
Evergreen, CO 80439
Toll-free: 800-328-5099
Phone: 303-674-2051
Fax: 303-674-4283
Email: icp@comskills.com
Website: www.couplecommunication.com