Contact Us — Reading Between the Lines

Thinking Critically About Reentry

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While some incarcerated individuals may have learned a hard job skill inside, few have built the soft skills to keep it. Prison offers no practice in being a good listener, thinker, or communicator. It offers no place for having one’s voice hea

Incarceration dehumanizes, and many of our participants have been in custody for years, sometimes decades. We help them build back the soft skills needed to succeed and stay out of prison.

Together, we are creating conversations that give hope, voice and humanity to life during and after incarceration.

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the top three soft skills employers feel are lacking in their employees are: problem-solving, critical thinking, innovation and creativity (37%), ability to deal with complexity and ambiguity (3

Our reading and discussion program is designed to enhance the thinking, listening and communication skills of formerly incarcerated and soon-to-be-released women and men from prison and jail. We use carefully chosen fiction and non-fiction to strengt

First, we listen. Our program is a response to powerful but too often unheard voices of the incarcerated. We amplify voices so participants have more agency over their lives through effective essential skills.

Our program underlines the vital role

Our participants draw on their unique life experience while learning to listen, reflect, and explain. After attending the required number of sessions, graduates receive a Certificate of Achievement. On receiving his, one 53 year-old man who had serve

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: The great works of literature we use to unlock minds are at the core of our program. “Traveling Through the Dark” by William Stafford is one such piece.

William Stafford was an award winning poet whose work spanned the

Our Board Chair, Ken Berry, published an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune this week on the importance of reinstating parole and discretionary release in Illinois. It's a critical issue that affects the lives and communities of our participants. Please ta

Our facilitators are at the heart of our program. Sessions are led by a diverse cadre of over 20 talented volunteers from academia, business and the arts.

Facilitators meet for 90-minute sessions with groups of 8-15 individuals to discuss exceptiona