Reply To: Exercise 6: 10 People Closer to Your Field
Exercise 6: Ten People Closer to the Field
List of advice from ten people relative to my project:
• Be aware of the mental acuity of participants/ literacy level
• Consider timeframe of program and adjusting it to constraints of incarceration
• Consider if secure facility is the best way to accomplish the mission
• Clearly define desired outcomes, and for which populations (the incarcerated, the warden, etc.); convince warden this is benefit to staff and inmates
• Consider limitations: can they have access to knives? Forks?
• Consider providing similar program in halfway house and/ or juvenile facilities
• Prove/ highlight the benefits/ why the juice is worth the squeeze
• First, prove it’s a problem (and define: a problem for whom?). Specify that this is not just “rich white lady” problems.
• Show that it’s more than just cooking, it’s life skills-building
• Don’t be a bull in a china shop, work with the people who have the authority to say yes or no
• Build coalitions
• Use terminology that the jail and prison systems prefer: “life skills” and “new hobbies” (Research this language). Life skills includes more than cooking so figure out what correctional facilities mean when they use terms like “life skills”
• Be careful it doesn’t turn into the haves making decisions for the have-nots without soliciting their input
• Consider the potential intellectual barriers of the local folks you’ll be dealing with (on the administrative/ managerial side)
• Be flexible around potential funding sources
• Emphasize that this is evidence-based
• Find commonalities: “our grannies were washing tin foil” etc.
• Consider hosting at prisons, not jails. Jails are not set up for this kind of programming, they literally just don’t have the space.
• Be tenacious. If you want to make it happen, don’t let a few ‘no’s’ get you down.
• Consider organizing leadership teams instead of going in alone. (Be clear about boundaries. Some people will be there out of boredom and/ or fall in love with you.)
• Name safety first. Make sure the jails/ prisons know you prioritize safety. (And then actually do prioritize your own safety.)
• Announce that it is plant-based food, otherwise people will feel tricked
• Emphasize that these will be economical, easy, healthy meals that will help them transition into life on the outside
• Be prepared for some level of weird. Things are weird behind bars.
• Go softly into that good night
An improved version of the project:
With this project I aim to provide life skills training to the detainees of Powder River Correctional Facility in Baker County, Oregon by offering sustainable cooking classes on a weekly or monthly basis. Incorporated into the workshop will be Spodek Method practice and training.
List of Referrals:
• Cooking Matters; most small communities have one
• Some D.C. re-entry experts, unnamed but to be cc’d on upcoming emails
• My mom
• Some sociology professors doing work in the criminal legal field
• My uncle Russ
• Destiny Payne, CHD reentry peer support
• Matt Christiansen, CHD jail diversion case manager
• Cody Bowen, the sheriff
• The chaplain or social worker at Powder River Correctional Facility
Reflections on experience:
I heard the words that Josh said last week about needing to call some number of people that was a factor greater than ten if the intent was to come to class prepared with a documented journey of ten calls made. I heard those words and thought to myself, “got it!” Then here comes the week, and all the other curve balls life throws, and I find myself thinking “does anyone else in my cohort have kids under the age of 5? Or under the age of 18 for that matter?” Then again, maybe I’m using my kids in the “my busy is more special than your busy” realm of excuses? In any case, here we are now.
I found as I made these calls that my understanding of who was or could be considered connected to this project (i.e. “closer to the field”) expanded. One of the delays at the beginning of the week was due to the first action item being “make a list of people closer to the field.” I knew I could figure some people out if I just sat down with it… but [reasons] and I didn’t. As I write this, I can think of at least half a dozen more people I can think to call, right off the top of my head.
This exercise also made me continue to hold the whole project up against that glorious unflinching light of skepticism. I often give the people I’m calling a chance to ask clarifying questions before we launch into giving advice, and some of the best questions I received were “why this population?” and, less directly, what are you really trying to accomplish here? I think this feedback helped me take an honest look at where my drive is coming from, and I’m realizing that one simultaneous problem I am trying to solve is that folks in the sustainability leadership space are eager to spread the word as far and wide as possible but they feel as if they still have a long ways to go with systems of broad reach. I feel like we need as many hands on deck as possible, and until people are champing at the bit to sign up for the Sustainability Simplified workshops (the next cohort of which starts Tuesday, September 10! Send your friends my way to get the registered!), I’m happy to find any willing participants, even if they’re locked up, even if they only show up for the free food.
I’ve heard the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and Josh keep reminding me that the battleground of sustainability leadership is in the hearts and minds of all 8 billion of us. Cooking workshops are a palatable way to get sustainability into people’s consciousness, and if that’s the consciousness of a person who happens to be under lock and key, I count that as a win.