Community Building
Reentry Sisters is a brave space and safe haven for women and girls. As system-impacted women, we celebrate our successes and lend support during our challenges. We uplift, encourage, and share information to help each woman achieve and sustain a life free of the carceral system, family policing organizations, and unhealthy relationships.
There are support groups for women returning to our communities; however, Reentry Sisters focuses on the unique needs of women. Women need a place to be messy and real in a non-judgmental forum among women who “get it.” We welcome women on home confinement, probation, or at any phase of the reentry process. Our monthly hybrid (in-person and Zoom) meetings help women statewide retain vital connections. Our open space encourages conversation about our fears and challenges, what makes us laugh or cry, and exchange social services information.
Radical Love Bags
Each woman released from Maine's prison received a bag customized to meet her immediate needs for clothing, personal care and other items. With the generous support of MECA&D faculty and students, we collaborated to include screened original art on the front of the bags and filled them with custom-designed and crafted journals, hand-made paper with inspirational messages, lovingly added art supplies, and other creative items.
Monthly Reentry Sisters meetings with women in community, at the Women's Center prison,and the Southern Maine Women's Reentry Center.
Maintaining connections and building social capital through our statewide network of Sisters in community through our Facebook group.
Create warm bridges to social services like housing, health care, mental health services, recovery coaches, work opportunities, and basic needs.
Education
The Reentry Sisters Education Initiative is designed to ensure college persistence and retention for justice-impacted women in community and those being released. This initiative will directly combat the 90% college dropout rate among formerly incarcerated individuals during reentry. Read our press release. Our Education model supports women, including :
- scholarships
- technical assistance
- financial literacy
- wellness and empowerment programming
- career services
- bridges to:
- mental health
- housing
- recovery services
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the higher the degree an incarcerated person receives, the lower the recidivism rate
- 14 percent for an associate degree
- 5.6 percent for a bachelor’s degree,
- 0 percent effectively for a master’s degree
Education increases public safety, creates self-sustainable families, and fosters civic engagement.
Public Policy & Legislation
Reentry Sisters actively advocates for policies that support people and families impacted by the criminal legal system. We believe all people deserve dignity, economic justice, and second chances.
We testify at legislative hearings on bills that support Reentry Sisters' mission and create more just, equitable, and fair systems for thriving individuals, families, and communities. If you have questions about a specific bill, please message us on our contact page.
Please visit our Legislative Basics page in the dropdown menu for how a bill becomes law, finding your representatives and senators, voting information and tips, and how to testify at a legislative public hearing.