Outreachands is equipped and certified to teach various life skills, cognitive behavior therapy, intervention, recovery, and conflict resolution classes. Our goal is to empower every individual to live a changed life with greater confidence, whether inside or outside a prison unit. Many human needs are non-quantitative and go largely unmet. Social services only go so far, and the criminal justice system often fails to address those harder-to-identify human needs beyond the basics such as food, water, air, and shelter. In the gap left by overtaxed and overburdened public entities, Outreachands works alongside the criminal justice system to fill these gaps and provide top-notch classes and programs benefitting the offender, the community, and the criminal justice system.
Outreachands believes in a holistic approach to aiding in the well-being of an individual, which includes the community in which they currently live and where they may one day reside. Rehabilitation is not only for those currently or formerly incarcerated, the addict, or the troubled. Rehabilitation is restoration for the whole community.
In the early 1960s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote while in Atlanta, Georgia, “Who is my neighbor?” What follows is the most eloquent definition penned to date. “I do not know his name,” says Jesus. “He is anyone to whom you prove to be neighborly. He is anyone lying in need on life’s roadside. He is neither a Jew nor a Gentile, he is neither a Russian nor an American, he is neither Negro nor white. He is a certain man’ – any man lying needy on one of the numerous Jerico roads of life.”[1]
Outreachands has answered the call to assist anyone lying in need on life’s roadside, to be a benefit to any man, any woman, and any child. If we can lift up everyone’s neighbor, all of us will live better lives.
[1] King, Dr. Martin Luther. “On Being A Good Neighbor.” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. www.kinginstitute.stanford.edu
Celebrate Recovery
Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-Centered recovery program to designed to help anyone walk out of their hurts, hang-ups, and habits. It is for any person struggling with any issue. Celebrate Recovery is a program that will help you find freedom from issues such as codependency, alcoholism, family dysfunction, addiction, social and racial injustice, and various traumas and hurtful circumstances.
Most people think of recovery as something only needed by those with chemical or alcohol dependency issues. However, only one-third of people currently attending Celebrate Recovery struggle with those particular issues. That means that most people who participate in a Celebrate Recovery program do not have drug or alcohol problems. They have other hurts, hang-ups, or habits. Celebrate Recovery is designed to walk with you through the hurt places in life.
Through the Celebrate Recovery program, Outreachands provides a safe place for hurting people to overcome many of life’s challenges.
Overcomers
Overcomers is a recovery support program for people struggling with life-controlling problems. Anchored in biblical principles, Overcomers helps any individual understand their problematic behavior or how the behavior of others has impacted their lives. The Overcomers program is combined with a 90-day workbook and a recovery group so that each person is responsible for their own journey but with the love and support of a group of people struggling with similar issues.
Through the Overcomers program, Outreachands fosters the idea that no one has to go through the process alone. Everyone has issues, and together, we can all find freedom.
Boundaries
Based on the book, “Boundaries: When To Say Yes, How To Say No to Take Control of Your Life” by Henry Cloud and John Townsend, Outreachands teaches a ten-week program that helps participants understand that boundaries are healthy and loving choices. Many people suffer from depression, addiction, eating disorders, and many other problems. Often, some or all of these issues stem from inadequate or no boundaries.
Cloud and Townsend’s book sheds light on the importance of boundaries from a biblical perspective. It defines what they are, how they protect the individual, how to develop them, and how to repair them once they’re broken. Furthermore, Cloud and Townsend help individuals define and understand boundaries for better personal and professional relationships.
Sisterhood of Ruth
Sisterhood of Ruth is a long-term reentry initiative for incarcerated women. The program is taught by Outreachands volunteers who were instrumental in its creation in 2009. The curriculum is determined by the program director on a yearly basis but is designed to provide offenders with the tools they need for successful reintegration into the community after release from prison. The curriculum includes problem-solving skills, anger management, cognitive restructuring, life skills, and social skills development.
Furthermore, the Sisterhood of Ruth program encourages offenders to maintain connections once they have been released as part of the community mentoring program during reentry. Mentoring is an essential part of the reentry process, and Outreachands has seen firsthand how these mentoring relationships have reduced recidivism.