Could this reentry program be the key to less gun violence in Philly?
Healing Past the Trauma
An intergenerational therapy program for formerly incarcerated men with fierce pasts strives to help everyone thrive post-incarceration. Could it be a path to less gun violence?
Aug. 05, 2021
In Oct of 2022 I sabbatum in on a Zoom call with a grouping of formerly incarcerated men brainstorming the causes of escalating gun violence in Philadelphia. They gave me a slew of one-give-and-take responses.
Poverty. Hopelessness. Cocky-detest. Inadequacy. Misguidance. Trauma. Toxic Masculinity. Inequity.
The meeting was part of an intergenerational healing circle for formerly incarcerated men from ages 17 to 50. The older men in the group were quondam Juvenile Lifers, all of them bedevilled for acts of homicide for which they served around 30 years. The young people were recently released from sentences where they were tried as adults when they were minors for serious violent offenses.
All of the men are trying to figure out their place in the world post-incarceration. The hope was to support them in achieving their cocky-determined vision of wellness, through connections to community resources and opportunities. In curt, a future that doesn't include violence.
The program was created every bit part of a $100,000 grant that the Philadelphia Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project (YSRP) received from Impact100 to advance their reentry program that partners with immature people and former Juvenile Lifers who faced charges in developed courtroom as children. They launched the year-long programme in person shortly before the pandemic, and then transitioned to Zoom.
More FROM PHILLY Nether FIRE PODCAST
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- Ep. i: Getting to the root of Philly'due south gun violence
- Ep. 2: Treating gun violence like a public wellness crisis
- Ep. iii: These U.Due south. cities are successfully tackling gun violence
"We compare it to the barbershop model," says Juwan Bennett, a reentry coordinator for the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Projection and 1 of the facilitators of the group. "If you've always been to a Black barbershop it'due south intergenerational, everybody'south on equal basis. Same every bit our group. Everybody has a perspective and can join in the chat and we express mirth together. We experience raw emotions together and we keep it honest with each other. What happens with the intergenerational healing circle is that it's intentional. We're intentionally edifice community and intentionally creating space."
Each session feels a footling like grouping therapy on steroids. Yes, the men talk most emotions in ways they probably can't in other parts of their lives, only they likewise talk about practical things—finding work, maintaining healthy relationships, looking for a place to alive. Merely almost importantly they are able to talk to someone else who has experienced the things they experienced in the prison organization.
"There'due south really no infinite for individuals who've committed a serious harm to really talk about their actions with other people who've been through those experiences," Bennett says, in office because they tin can be sent back to prison for violating their parole by associating with other formerly incarcerated people.
"Having a infinite where people tin at present talk about this could be a model for the criminal justice system to look into," Bennett says. "We know that the prison experience can exist traumatic, but nosotros don't accept any spaces where people who've been through a traumatic experience or have done harm, tin gather and process those feelings so get whole, and then be able to help provide solutions for stakeholders to address problems in our community."
Dr. Harold Jean Wright, a clinical and forensic psychologist who has been focusing on behavioral health in Philadelphia for two decades, was another moderator of the group. Wright says the group dynamics and open chat gave the men purpose and a feeling of belonging that is necessary to re-integrating into lodge post-incarceration.
"There'southward something about knowing that you have something to contribute in the world that is a bully elixir," Wright says. "When you give them an opportunity to come across life from the point of view of: I take value, I accept worth, I have an ability to impact someone else's life in a positive manner. So you start to see the light bulb go off and people actually get into that service aspect of being useful and seeing themselves as valuable."
We live in a city that has been searching for solutions to the gun violence epidemic that has been raging since 2020, and that is however on the rise: Already more than 300 people take been killed and some other 1,200 shot this year, a nearly 25 percent increase over last twelvemonth's brutality. I worked on an entire podcast, Philly Nether Burn down, looking for solutions. During a year of reporting I didn't find whatever clear cut answers. What I did notice were a lot of customs-based groups doing a lot of great piece of work that tin aid chip abroad at the problem.
It'due south no secret that trauma and inequity often lead to increased levels of aggression and gun violence, specially early exposure to violence in families and neighborhoods of colour, where immature Black men are the most frequent victims and perpetrators of shootings. The healing circumvolve was created to try to address some of that trauma, to assistance the immature men move away from their vehement by.
Joanna Visser Adjoian, the co-founder of YSRP, says that the healing circle was born out of conversations with older men who had been in the system who were looking to connect with the next generation. "One-time Juvenile Lifers were seeking opportunities to share their experiences with young people, to inspire their own transformation and healing," she says. "The formation of intergenerational circles, where people with shared experience across generations tin come together and heal, was a natural outgrowth of that desire."
The Intergenerational Healing Circle, which is supported past local and international foundation partners, as well as gifts from individuals, had four cadre goals: understanding and healing from trauma; creating connectedness rooted in shared experience of incarceration and reentry; developing agency and liberation-oriented leadership; and customs building.
"Y'all might not know the history of conflict in a neighborhood, but one of the older guys does," Bennett says. "And the older guys might not empathize how the younger guys go into arguments today. If we're able to kind of pull those intergenerational conversations and threads together, then we can make real, real, real, real change."
While reporting Philly Under Fire I joined the healing circumvolve for a number of Zoom sessions. I even met them in person in W Philly for a socially-distanced picnic.
I recollect very clearly one conversation we had nigh getting out of prison and wanting to eat every meal with a spoon considering that was the only utensil they were given during almost meals, how there was so much shame wrapped up in that.
Nosotros talked well-nigh how difficult it was to answer the simple question how are yous feeling? because no i had asked them that for so long. They talked well-nigh the fear of trying something new considering it felt similar failure in any aspect of their lives was no longer an option for them.
The older men gave the younger men leads on jobs; the younger guys taught the older ones how to go on social media. The men's vulnerability was infectious and heartbreaking and it was so clear that they were eager to have a space where they could digest their trauma.
"It's this relatedness and willingness to be vulnerable in the IGHC that makes this experience rewarding and transformative for many of united states," says John Pace, the other Reentry Coordinator at the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project. "While in prison, we frequently had to suppress our vulnerabilities and exacerbate our masculinity, so this infinite for us is truly healing."
Over the course of our conversations and while watching the young men interact with their elders, the ones they affectionately chosen the erstwhile heads, I felt in my gut that something was changing in front of my optics, that maybe offering this kind of community and therapy to the formerly incarcerated will help heal their trauma and keep them from picking up a gun or getting back into the illegal economic system.
YSRP has measured success based on whether the men in the group felt connected to i another, felt a a sense of healing and a sense of empowerment and purpose.
"Given 2020'due south context of global pandemic, ongoing country violence against Black lives, uprising, and racial reckoning, building an intergenerational community of individuals with lived experiences of incarceration has become critically important," Visser Adjoian says "IGHC participants cocky-reported the value they institute in attending the grouping, and have forged meaningful relationships within it that have been crucial as they navigate their reentry.".
In May 2021, YSRP launched two new IGHC cohorts. 1 follows the format of their 2022 pilot, bringing together young Black and brown men (youth customer-partners of YSRP) and former Juvenile Lifers who share the experience of beingness prosecuted in the adult justice system as children in facilitated group sessions that explore issues of trauma, incarceration, healing and growth.
The second cohort is exclusively for women and girls. They told me they anticipate deepening the healing circles as a cadre component of YSRP's work moving forward.
"It'south this relatedness and willingness to be vulnerable that makes this experience rewarding and transformative for many of us," says John Pace. "While in prison house, we often had to suppress our vulnerabilities and exacerbate our masculinity, so this space for united states is truly healing."
"Nosotros're notwithstanding non a finished product. I retrieve as much as we're still in our infancy stages," Bennett says. But 1 of the big things that he took away from facilitating the group is that solutions to gun violence do lie in conversations betwixt the generations.
"You lot might non know the history of disharmonize in a neighborhood, merely one of the older guys does," he says. "And the older guys might not understand how the younger guys become into arguments today. If we're able to kind of pull those intergenerational conversations and threads together, and so nosotros can make real, real, real, real alter."
At the stop of one of the Zoom meetings that I joined we asked for some more 1-word answers from the men about gun violence. This time I wanted to know what they thought could cease the epidemic of gun violence in our urban center. The men hesitated slightly, just then the words began pouring out of them.
Didactics. Money. Humility. Cultural change. Choices. Love.
Author and podcaster Jo Piazza spent a year trying to understand Philly's gun violence epidemic—and identify ways to solve information technology. Listen to the groundbreaking vii-episode series here .
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/healing-past-the-trauma/