2018 End of Year Recap
Happy Holidays and thank you for all of your support of The Insight Alliance. We have had a very fulfilling first year and want to share a few highlights with you.
COFFEE CREEK WOMEN’S PRISON
We finally started our program at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, the medium security women’s prison. It has been a long time coming and a dream for us to get to work with women.We’re a couple weeks in and the participants are so grateful for what we’re offering, and they’re already seeing the benefit. We’re currently serving 34 women.
—
RESEARCH
Our research with Pacific University at both Columbia River and Coffee Creek is underway. Once we can prove through data studies that our program is making a difference, we will have an evidence based practice which will allow us to expand the scope of our programs and be helpful for raising funds.
—
COLUMBIA RIVER MEN’S PRISON
Our programs in the men’s prison are going well and continuing to grow. We served 87 men this year and are working to develop mentors in the prison to assist with new participants.
—
YOUTH PRISON
We will be starting our program at Maclaren Youth Correctional Facility early in 2019. This is especially exciting for the men we work with who recognize if they’d learned 15 years ago what they are learning through our programs today, they may not have ended up in prison. If we can work with the youth, we believe we can help reduce the numbers of people going to adult prison.
—
TEACHER TRAINING
We began our six-month teacher training program to help train more teachers to work in prisons and in the community. Three or four guys from Columbia River, who are now out of prison and want to be part of The Insight Alliance team, and three others from the community, are joining us.
—
OUR PROGRAM WILL BE OFFERED AT PCC
We are now partnering with the Opening Doors program at Portland Community College (PCC). This program is specifically created to help previously incarcerated people gains skill and have easier access to college. We will be offering a weekly group session at the Cascade campus as a follow up for those who have come through The Insight Alliance program and for others who are looking to find more peace of mind as they navigate college after prison.
—
THE IOS COLLECTIVE
The Insight Alliance has formed the IOS Collective with One Solution in Chicago and Spark Initiative in Florida. Each organization is working with different populations but all pointing the same understanding. So fun to see our participants learning from each other. The One Solution founders will be in Portland in January to join us for our teacher training weekend. Find out more at ioscollective.org.
—
OUR FUNDRAISER
We also organized our inaugural fundraiser in October. Folsom 50 played great music, Plaza Del Toro provided delicious food and A to Z and Lagunitas contributed the beverages. We had a terrific evening and met some wonderful people.
—
GRANTS
We are excited to announce we were recently awarded three grants: Collins Foundation, Hillman Foundation and Charis Foundation.
