Reflecting on 2021:The Solidarity Building Initiative for Liberative Carceral Education

Jan 4

For folks living on the margins, trying to survive while navigating systems of oppression and violence in a grind culture, where enough is never enough, setting aside time for joy and celebration becomes an afterthought. Something reserved for others but never for us. We move from one milestone, transition, or accomplishment with only a fist pump, as we scurry on to the next thing to achieve, the next battel to win or the next struggle to overcome. In the process, unbeknown to us, we rob ourselves of the benefits that come from pausing to celebrate our victories, our joys, and our successes. Celebrations cause us to linger and relish in the goodness, ushering in the sort of gratitude that increases happiness and extends our life, and improves our relationships to ourselves and others.

Celebration begets gratitude.

Research reveals offering gratitude not only to others but also to ourselves, cultivates positive emotions, inviting happiness and joy into lives. Expressing gratitude in community is a proactive action toward developing interpersonal connections and ignites feelings of closeness and bonding. Leaders who make offering gratitude a practice are seen as compassionate, considerate, empathetic, and loved among others. The effects of gratitude, when practiced daily become medicine to the body, orienting the senses toward happiness and contentment.

These are the words I shared with a group of McCormick SBI students at the Cook County Jail. I offered them as part a celebration circle we hosted to honor and celebrate their commitments and contributions to completing the Healing and Justice Conversation Series. While writing, I was reminded that we at SBI also need to pause, reflect and celebrate. As we embark on a new year, I want to take a moment to reflect on the work of SBI in 2021, and to celebrate our accomplishments and offer deep gratitude to our community.

At the start of 2021, while navigating the challenges brought on by the global pandemic, we launched our Community-Driven Curriculum. We hosted two public education series, communal healing space, two book conversations and a teach-in to raise awareness on the issues of mass incarceration. Our public-facing programming inspired the writing of an article about SBI in the Christian Science Monitor. This article would go on to garner the attention of a donor who would gift SBI with $70,000 to continue our work.

We expanded our offering to the women's division at the County Department of Corrections, offering a correspondence course. We launched our first summer workshop series, offering two extracurricular workshops to engage both men and women in theological education. We invited incarcerated learners to submit prayers of lament in the Prayer Collective, which will be publish in early 2022.

We launched our Collaborative Partnerships Program, developing relationships with Dominican University, Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Governors State University, Equity and Transformation and Gatekeepers. Our budding relationship with the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, launched the Healing and Justice Conversation Series, and invited Alonzo Waheed at Equity and Transformation and Dr. Christophe Ringer at Chicago Theological Seminary to join us in the carceral classroom.

Marlon Chamberlain joined the SBI Team as our Reentry Advisor. Sharing his firsthand experience as both a directly impacted person and seasoned community organizer, advocating for the rights of directly impacted people upon release, Marlon and I co-designed and co-developed the Reentry Support Model. Our reentry model begins the moment someone is detained in a carceral space and centers the individual needs of SBI students and alum and connects them to intentional community and resources with a C.A.R.E Coach and C.A.R.E. Support team.

Our reentry support system is undergirded by a culture of C.A.R.E. Our C.A.R.E culture is characterized by creating a Community of belonging where mutual Accountability is encouraged, personal and collective Responsibility is honored, and individual Excellence is inextricable tied to the excellence of our neighbors. Our C.A.R.E culture framework is rooted in belonging, love, and restorative practices. Our aim is to provide a holistic approach to reentry that will improve the quality of life of SBI students and alum, which will inevitably reduce their odds of recidivating.

We launched the Solidarity Building Initiative website. Our website was designed with the intention of centering the voices, experiences and challenges that incarcerated leaners experience (as a way of transforming the negative narratives and stigmas ascribed to directly impacted people) as well as highlight the program features and the amazing community that stands in solidarity with us.

Along with the launch of our website, we started a blog series entitle "Students Behind Bars: The Voices of Community Healers". Every month we will feature the scholarship of McCormick SBI students who are detained at the Cook County Department of Corrections. Our aim is to celebrate their brilliance as student scholars while also changing the harmful and toxic narratives assigned to people behind bars. We invite you to be inspired and activated to join us in changing the narrative.

Reflecting on our work with deep gratitude, I celebrate our small and growing team. I am deeply grateful to be part of the SBI team, and for our past and present team members, the Office of Community Engagement and the broader McCormick Community, all of our community partners, and of course, and certainly not least our McCormick SBI Students.

As we begin this new year, we plan to launch the pilot of our C.A.R.E inside program, add two new team members, grow our programming at both the men and women's division at the Cook County Jail. We move forward with gratitude towards building our freedom dream.

Love and solidarity,

Jia Johnson Program Director

If you are inspired to support our work, please consider donating at https://www.sbiinitiative.com/donate

Jia Johnson