TY - JOUR
T1 - Developing peer leaders and reducing recidivism through long-term participation in a faith-based program
T2 - The story of welcome home ministries
AU - Warner-Robbins, Carmen
AU - Parsons, Mickey L.
N1 - Funding Information:
During a 2-year funded National Institute of Nursing Research postdoctoral fellowship in community based interventions, Parsons (1999) developed a theoretical framework for health promoting organizations (HPOs) to guide the development of innovative programs for health. Health is defined as well-being framed holistically: mind, body, and spirit. A HPO is defined ‘‘as a community that designs activities and programs, to improve social and environmental living conditions, that enable people to increase control over and improve their health. Organizations, everywhere, may conceive Health Promoting’ as an integrative strategy to promote the well being of each and every person’’ (Parsons, p. 84). Within an ecological framework, the focus is capacity building within five levels of a HPO. These levels are organizational leadership, interpersonal, individual, municipal community and public policy.
Funding Information:
Given the HPO framework, a PAR study was proposed and partially funded by Prison Fellowship Ministries and approved by the University of Arizona Institutional Review Board. The purpose of the PAR study was to facilitate a process through which the women of WHM develop specific plans, strategies, and actions to provide for their own and other women’s healthy futures. At that time WHM was emerging as an organization and had neither been incorporated as a not-for-profit organization nor developed its approach to comprehensive programming.
Copyright:
Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2010/7
Y1 - 2010/7
N2 - Welcome Home Ministries is a faith-based community reentry organization serving women being released from jail and/or prison. Welcome Home's mission is to create a faith-based support system for women from incarceration to productive citizenship. Welcome Home's goal is to reduce recidivism of women ex-offenders who suffer from substance abuse and mental health issues by creating a healthy life focus. Founded by Warner-Robbins in 1996, Welcome Home (WHM) has provided service to more than 300 women per year who have been released from jail or prison into San Diego County communities. The women served usually have few resources and need support to address the lifestyle values and changes that must be confronted to make a successful transition back into the community. The combination of recovery programs, peer services, and early intervention have proven to be effective in assisting the women through the change process. To date, more than 80% of the women we have served have been able to sustain their recovery and avoid additional offenses requiring a return to jail or prison. Welcome Home has helped women go to college, embark on careers in drug and alcohol counseling or nursing, and reunite with their families. Welcome Home provides a healthy supportive environment, within which women who had never made healthy choices for themselves, now assist other women getting out of jail or prison in making healthier decisions for their lives.
AB - Welcome Home Ministries is a faith-based community reentry organization serving women being released from jail and/or prison. Welcome Home's mission is to create a faith-based support system for women from incarceration to productive citizenship. Welcome Home's goal is to reduce recidivism of women ex-offenders who suffer from substance abuse and mental health issues by creating a healthy life focus. Founded by Warner-Robbins in 1996, Welcome Home (WHM) has provided service to more than 300 women per year who have been released from jail or prison into San Diego County communities. The women served usually have few resources and need support to address the lifestyle values and changes that must be confronted to make a successful transition back into the community. The combination of recovery programs, peer services, and early intervention have proven to be effective in assisting the women through the change process. To date, more than 80% of the women we have served have been able to sustain their recovery and avoid additional offenses requiring a return to jail or prison. Welcome Home has helped women go to college, embark on careers in drug and alcohol counseling or nursing, and reunite with their families. Welcome Home provides a healthy supportive environment, within which women who had never made healthy choices for themselves, now assist other women getting out of jail or prison in making healthier decisions for their lives.
KW - Women
KW - alcohol and other drugs
KW - faith-based
KW - peer leaders
KW - reentry
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77954634235&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=77954634235&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/07347324.2010.488534
DO - 10.1080/07347324.2010.488534
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:77954634235
SN - 0734-7324
VL - 28
SP - 293
EP - 305
JO - Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly
JF - Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly
IS - 3
ER -