Program Design

Angela commented on program design for  Group 1 and 2

Program Design: 

Spiritual Awakening

Gigi Brown

Angela Henry

EDAC 634

Ball State University

Spiritual Awakening

Spiritual Awakening offers seminars, workshops, classes and other programs for ex-offenders seeking spiritual healing and cleansing.   Spiritual Awakening offers a safe space for the ex-offender to look deeply in to the old tapes, beliefs systems or obstacles that landed them in prison.

The ex-offender is given the opportunity to see where he/she got stuck or disconnected from their true self. We return to that place and time, encouraging them to choose differently, to choose your soul's truth.  The ex-offender receives tools for transforming old belief systems into unconditional love and individual freedom, thereby aligning with their inner wisdom.  This awareness allows the ex-offender to:

·       Become in touch with how you are in your own way

·       Love and Accept yourself for who you truly are

·       Trust and Respect yourself fully and completely

·       Realize your true essence of unconditional love and individual freedom

Spiritual Awakening is a spiritual learning program that presents alternatives for the ex-offender to master their life and teach them to create the life the truly desire through spiritual awareness.

Spiritual Learning Behind Bars and Beyond is an six month program where the participant will explore the obstacles that have held them back until now, while learning to make new choices. The participant will have the opportunity to know and choose their spiritual wisdom over the obstacles and belief systems you have chosen.

Workshops will include:

·       Erasing past tapes that no longer support you

·       Letting go of obstacles that no longer serve you

·       Becoming aware of buried feelings that control you 

·       Creating relationships that fulfill you

·       Discovering how enemies are great teachers

·       Stopping the inner fight

Spiritual Awakening will provide an opportunity for an ex-offender to participate in a deep spiritual self-healing session. This spiritual awareness session must be in person. During this time we look at any issues of the soul's growth. Issues may have been manifested early in their life and continue to surface for healing and transformation. We support their soul to continue to evolve until it realizes its essence of unconditional love and individual freedom.   The ex-offender must respond to the following questions:

·       What obstacles have you created that do not allow you to have what you truly desire and deserve in your life?

·       What commitments are you willing to make to yourself in order to realize the love and abundance that is your very essence?

·       Are you worth having love, peace, freedom and abundance in your life?

·       Are you choosing to realize your unconditional love and individual freedom in this lifetime?

During the session, the emphasis is spiritual. We ask the ex-offender to quiet their head, open their heart, and listen to their soul.  At this session you're given the opportunity to choose differently, and realize the love, peace and joy that lies within you.   The ex-offender will also receive some technical teaching tools tapes, videos and pamphlets to review the information.

Spiritual Awakening conducts Healing Circles aka support groups for the purpose of creating a spiritual environment of spiritual awareness.  The setting is a very caring and allow for the deepest truth and the highest level of spiritual responsibility to be realized by all present.

This program is created for the purpose of assisting ex-offenders to resolve conflict or dispute in a spiritual manner, one in which all parties take spiritual responsibility for their creations and make choices that allow love and freedom to be realized by all.

The vision is to evolve relationships and/or situations to the highest vibration of love and freedom possible.  The main requirement is that each ex offender be committed to the process.  Each one must be willing to take responsibility for their creations, while having a strong desire to choose differently. Participants must agree to resolve issues spiritually.  The issues presented may include, but not be limited to:

·       Personal relationship with self

·       Spiritual relationship with self

·       Relationships with family and friends

·       Personal partnerships

Rationale

The main idea of the program is to help the ex-offender discover what it takes to break the cycle of criminal life and incarceration. Based on the accounts of those who have lived this experience, it requires an intense will to change attitudes and behavior to improve one’s life, a willingness to learn new skills, love themselves and an ability to overcome rejection time after time. The obstacles that are in store for the ex-offender who is released into society are enormous. 

Spiritual Awakening helps ex-offenders discover new approaches that can help change their lives spirituality and explore practical approaches for everyday living, so that they do not become repeat offenders.  

The purpose for starting this program is to help ex-offenders transition back into the main stream of society; after leaving prison so that they bring back value to themselves, their families, and their communities.

Once released from the criminal justice system, ex-offenders usually find re-entering society a difficult process. Attitudes and behavior that ensure survival in prison (being tough, intimidating or withdrawn) work against building a stable spiritual and emotional life.

The ex-offenders spiritual growth is essential before they can understand the importance of assuming responsibility for their future and turning away from antisocial behavior that leads to crime, and back to prison.

Spiritual Awakening main purpose is to assist the ex-offender with the culture shock of going from regimented prison life to the life on the outside.   By focusing on a few simple things the ex-offender can create a whole new way of being for themselves, and begin a much more blessed life. The ex- offender will learn the importance of assuming responsibility for their future and turning away from antisocial behavior that leads to crime, and back to prison, by discovering their spirituality.

Prison life is traumatic. It is often dehumanizing. Yet being back in society has its own ordeals. The ex-offender must first develop a spiritual believe system within for why they deserve to heal and forgiven before they can start over. 

Spiritual Awakening has three primary features to guide this program. Our program primary purpose is to teach the ex-offender the following:

Forgiveness – You can’t be spiritual if you are walking around with a big chip on your shoulder, holding grudges against people, or just generally harboring a bunch of deep resentments. It just doesn’t work. Spiritual Awakening teaches the ex-offender to free up some of the energy (hate and anger is a big drain) by forgiving themselves and others. Spiritual Awakening provides tools and resources to get the ex-offender to look at overcoming resentments. Forgiving yourself and others and letting go of your resentments is a huge step towards living a spiritual life.

Literature – Spiritual Awakening encourages the ex-offender seeking a spiritual path to try reading spiritual books. We offer the ex-offer a wide range of daily devotions and various spiritual literatures such as the daily mediation book, or any spiritual text that will help the ex-offender adjust in society.

Stop Measuring and Comparing – In life we have a tendency to measure ourselves against others. For example, the ex-offender we might think that everyone around him/her is a spiritual guru compared to them. We encourage the ex-offender to stop putting themselves down in this way, realize that we are all spiritual beings, and we all have the opportunity to be in tune today and connect with our higher selves.

Course of Action

After a prisoner is released from jail, they will be introduced to different programs that are offered in the state, which include seminars, workshops, classes and various programs that will introduce them to Spiritual Awakening.  This will begin the process.

Step 1 -Share. Each individual will have their own personal story to share. This will help them in their forgiveness stage, and help them to be able to open up in front of others to share their personal journey. This is a crucial part of the program, because the forgiving stage will help them relate and connect to their spiritual learning and development. This process will be different for each individual, and Spiritual Learning Behind Bars and Beyond will provide guidance and mentoring from beginning to end. 

Step 2- Develop your spiritual being. Everyone has a unique story to share and it is their personal story which will make each person’s story unique. This may be difficult for individuals to open up and share but it will help them to love and accept themselves for who they truly are. It is also a way for them to trust and respect themselves fully and completely and realize their true essence of unconditional love and individual freedom. The seminars, programs and workshops will help the ex-offenders in the development of spiritual growth by the training and programs that are offered in the ex-offenders program.   

Step 3- Participate. During this phase, the ex-offenders will participate in various workshops and begin to heal and transform. They will work on obstacles and determine what they have created that did not allow them to have the desires of life. The ex-offenders will open their hearts and minds to determine what is important to them. They are making a life changing decision when they chose spiritual growth. Facilitators at the workshops are there to help ex-offenders work through their personal journey and their personal reflections. During this process they will be able to walk away with pamphlets, videos, and technical tools, to ensure that they are developing in the right direction.

Step 4-Commitment. This is a special part of the program. The ex-offenders will commit to take responsibility for their past and their future. Our ex-offenders are going to learn to have a personal relationship and spiritual relations with self. They will also learn to commit to having a relationship with family and friends and commit to personal partnerships.  The goal is that ex-offenders will connect to a spiritual being and gain confidence and believe in themselves. This program will be encouraging to other ex-offenders when they see the changes in the ones that have been through the program. This will encourage other ex-offenders to connect to their spiritual side and master their life and teach them to create the life the truly desire through spiritual awareness.

Conclusion

Spiritual Awakening is a program that was developed for ex-offenders to be able to take a look at their inner soul and have peace within them.  The ex-offender takes a look at them and rewinds the tape to try and figure out how they landed in prison in the first place. In this program the ex-offender is able to master their life and the program will teach them to create the life they truly desire through spiritual awareness. The question that remains outstanding for an ex-offender is did the program work? And is your life changed because of it. For a person who is willing and wanting to change their life and move into the right direction, the program is priceless.

Reference

S.O.U.L.  (2011). http://soulinstitute.com