With the hiring of three individuals to facilitate the Sisters Project, the program is now being fully implemented. Penny is the project coordinator and offers counseling at two drop in sites. Genene and Shavon are the front-line contact, inviting women involved with prostitution and drugs to come off the streets before being arrested and incarcerated. The three women, working with Third District police officers, make a caring team as they seek to help women who wish to come in off the streets and make the neighborhood a safer place for all. Funding for the Sisters Project was secured by Congresswoman Gwen Moore. For more information, click here.
Lisa Flannery, a Benedict Center graduate, has joined forces with Chris Miles and Sharon Christenson, her mother, to open The Pennys and Nichols Center (PANC) in Oconomowoc. Lisa’s experience with the Benedict Center impressed upon her just how important it is to get the help and compassion you need in order to get your life back on track at a time when you feel most vulnerable. “At the Benedict Center,” Lisa stated, “I was able to speak openly and frankly about what I needed. As a result, my programming was individualized and tailored to help me meet my goals. Perhaps most important, I felt that the people there were genuinely concerned and interested in my achieving success.”
After completing her program in August 2009, Lisa began focusing her efforts on helping others in much the same way, which has served more than 70 families since opening in March 2010. Lisa’s role as client advocate at PANC puts her in the position of being able to help clients find critical resources and making referrals to other agencies that can meet their needs, to listen to their stories and find solutions for their problems. As an art therapist, she helps individuals connect with one another and with themselves.
PANC is open to all people who are in need of assistance – seniors, children, families with special needs, individuals returning to society after incarceration, those who are desperately poor and those who are not poor enough. Lisa describes PANC as a “maverick agency,” one that has an open door so that no one falls between the cracks because of a narrow focus that limits their services to any single segment of the population. “We firmly believe that the number of options people have for improving their lives is in direct proportion to their levels of hope,” says Executive Director Miles, so the Center’s goal is to offer the hope they need and the resources that will realize it. For more information, call (262) 560-1111 or send e-mail to pennysandnicholscenter@yahoo.com.
Supporting Substance-abusing Incarcerated Mothers in Recovery and Family Reunification.
Principal Investigator Dr. Susan J. Rose and her research team recently conducted a focus group with women at the Benedict Center as part of Keeping Families Together. This new one-year pilot project funded through the Bureau of Justice Administration is aimed at developing an “in reach” response to help prevent re-occurring substance abuse by assisting incarcerated women in seeking treatment upon release and assisting mothers of minor children in re-establishing or initiating family reunification efforts upon re-entry into the community.
Benedict Center women discussed challenges they faced as a parent while they were incarcerated, how that experience affected their children and their connection with them both while they were in jail and after their release. The group provided many important insights into what families face with imprisonment and what they need to stay connected with their children. Some of the fundamental concerns that were expressed in the initial focus group included [list two or three most pressing issues].
“These women were courageous to talk about some of the most painful times in their lives with us, and we are deeply grateful for their contribution to this research project,” said Dr. Rose. “We especially value our long standing relationship with the Benedict Center in finding ways to help women who are struggling with the double punch of substance use and incarceration.”
A unique aspect of this project is that graduate students in the school’s Child Welfare Training Program are an integral part of the research team who will be conducting screenings of women at the County Correctional Facility-South (formerly the House of Corrections). Ultimately, Dr. Rose hopes the findings will lead to the development of methods that will be effective in overcoming the barriers to substance abuse treatment that mothers of minor children face when they are released back to their community and try to re-connect with their children. It is hoped that these methods will result in more mothers entering and staying in substance abuse treatment and fewer of their children living in substitute care.
Dr. Thomas P. LeBel is co-principal investigator of the project;Dean Stan Stojkovic is a co-investigator; UWM alumna Barbara Teske-Young is project coordinator; and HBSSW doctoral student Andrea Gromoske is serving as research assistant.
