2. Community Building

M. Scott Peck.s community building intervention is considered the foundation of Project Return. In the group process of community building, participants create a safe environment for healing the emotional wounds resulting from their criminal past as well as from the neglect, abuse, molestation, violence and poverty of their youth.

In a relatively short period of time, community building, while emphasizing the value of each individual, facilitates a group of people into becoming a cohesive, mutually supportive working group. Therefore, a .true community. can be defined as a group of people that, in spite of the individual differences in their backgrounds and experiences, have been able to overcome and accept their differences, and are able to communicate openly and honestly and to work effectively together for their own common good.

Through community building, participants learn to:

· Communicate in new ways

· Deal with difficult issues

· Welcome and affirm diversity

· Bridge differences with integrity

· Relate with compassion and respect

Participants of Project Return.s 90-day programs are required to attend the initial two and one-half day community-building workshop and ongoing weekly group sessions. The workshop serves a dual purpose: to build community among participants and staff and to supply the program with additional participant data for planning purposes.

Key elements support creating and sustaining that environment including confidentiality, .What is said in the circle remains in the circle,. with an emphasis on non-violent interactions. Each individual verbally commits to .no violence or threats of violence. at the start of the initial workshop. While confronting personal or interpersonal issues, participants often engage in grief work, conflict resolution, assertiveness, finding their own voice, developing listening skills, accountability to others, cooperation and collaboration. Researchers have shown empirically that learning these skills in cohesive and cooperative groups, or communities, is more profound and significantly enhances the success of the individual.

During the mandatory Community Building workshop which initiates each Project Return cycle, participants are gathered together in a circle for two or three 8-hour days to work on a single goal, namely to become a true community. The workshop is entirely experiential; that is, the members of the group do not receive instructions on how to become a community nor how to behave in a community.

The weekly maintenance groups that follow this intensive workshop are intended to become long-term communities in which participants can acquire stronger skills in completing the tasks necessary to maintain a community and benefit from its healing effects. It is in the process of building and maintaining a community that one experiences the enhancement of self-development, communication skills, interpersonal and family relationship development, and stress and anger management, all necessary tools in obtaining and maintaining employment and remaining in free society.

3. Addiction Treatment & Counseling

While Project Return is not a treatment facility, a significant number of participants present addictive behaviors requiring treatment if they expect to make a successful adjustment to the community. The primary role of the community building process with regards to addictions, however, is to cultivate the participant.s understanding and processing of how one.s past ordeals and tragedies are connected to his/her addictive behaviors.

Adversity as Initiation . An Indigenous Perspective: In his three books about the indigenous world, Malidoma SoméPh.D. gives us a perspective on initiation of the young into true adulthood that is analogous, in part, to the processes of community building. In his third book, Some tells the story of a man.s fall from success in business and society that results in a prison sentence, parole and starting his life over again. He sites this man.s experience as an example in every way of a true initiation. Stripped of everything, all that is left for him to transform into his future is himself and his life.s true purpose. .It just doesn.t have the formality of an indigenous initiation. But initiation,. he says, .is intimately connected to ordeal.. From the indigenous point of view, Soméays that even our worst ordeals should have the effect of .stretching the physical self far enough to bring about more awareness, more sense of responsibility, more wisdom. Discipline arises from and is aimed toward the knowledge that one is going somewhere purposeful in life..

Bringing Closure to Initiatory Experiences: Soméoints out, however, that the immediate issue for us in this country is not finding initiatory experiences [trouble or trauma], but rather, it is how to bring closure to the pain and suffering that results from them. .The problem is that in order for such suffering to pass, it has to be recognized. It is the absence of radical and genuine recognition and acknowledgment that makes suffering [and the need for a drug] grow larger. The initiatory experience and the suffering that accompanies it end when the person.s suffering has been acknowledged by others. Radical recognition takes place when a community witnesses the hardship being endured by a person, or the wounds he or she suffered. An ordeal that has not been witnessed or acknowledged is likely to repeat itself.. .There is an endless series of unresolved initiations in the modern world due to the isolationism we practice and our troubles, therefore, become personalized. In addition,. Soméays, .there is a tendency for many to ostracize people who seek to have their suffering acknowledged. The psyche of a person who seeks recognition as a way to end the suffering from an initiation experience interprets this ostracism as a sign that the world hasn.t noticed, so it sends a message to repeat the experience in hopes that next time someone will notice..

One of the primary reasons for recidivism is the return of the offender to society without proper treatment of alcohol and for other drug dependencies. Addictions problems affect the large majority of offenders but too few get adequate intervention in their disease. For those former offenders who have embraced a 12-step recovery program while incarcerated, continuation in these programs of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, etc. following release is one of the most essential steps in readjustment to free life. For others, referral to primary treatment/aftercare (i.e. Project Return), a halfway house or some other type of professional intervention may be necessary depending on the individual`s needs.

The primary focus of Project Return`s Addictions Class is on educating participants in the general factors in our cultural and scientific history that have made our society an addictive system and in the principles of relapse prevention and cross addiction. It is necessary to identify and debate cultural beliefs that foster and oppose the current diversification of addictive behaviors. Participants need to be better equipped to understand and deal with addictive behaviors in themselves, friends, and families in their personal lives and in supervisors, counselors, and customers in their professional lives. It is essential to educate all participants on addictive and compulsive behaviors and to provide effective problem-solving skills in order to maximize each participant`s opportunity to succeed.

4.Job Training & Placement Assistance

Employability skills are evaluated and enhanced through group and individual sessions. The focus of each session is to help each participant in securing and maintaining employment. The course material consists of guest speakers, lectures, reference material, experiential interactive processes and discussion. The topics such as goal setting, problem-solving, interviewing, conflict resolution, etc. are used as a guide in developing self-confidence and the ability in each participant to function within an organization. Program services regarding employment include individual counseling and assessment of work skills and employment history. Project Return coordinates a network of private businesses that provide special employment opportunities within their companies for graduates of our program. When our graduates are placed on the job, we depend on their outstanding performances to further encourage their employers to request more of our participants for placement.