Bon Air Project

This is a community-based learning class.   Our class will be volunteering together in groups at the Bon Air  Juvenile Correctional Center. We will be mentoring teens who are preparing for their release from the correctional center, by sharing personal stories. All of the teens we work with are in the correctional center for non-violent juvenile offenses and our work with them will be supervised at all times. We will visit the correctional center six times in the semester.

We will schedule these visits early in the semester, attempting the impossible task of working around everyone’s schedules.  They are not optional.

IMPORTANT: We need to fulfill the requirements for volunteers at the detention center, which will involve being fingerprinted and undergoing a background check. Our staff partners at the  Bon Air Juvenile Correctional Center have informed us that the only things that would prevent a volunteer from being allowed to serve at the detention center are felonies and sexual offenses against children.

We will be volunteering as part of the Pathways program.

The goals are:

  1. UR students and Bon Air residents will develop a healthy short term peer to peer relationship.
  1. UR students and Bon Air residents will be able to utilize self-reflection to tell stories from their own lives in a group and in an individual setting.
  1. UR students and Bon Air residents will practice positive communication skills such as making eye contact, using complete sentences, setting appropriate boundaries, and understanding verbal and non verbal cues.

In addition: by the end of the course, UR students will be able to describe specific ways that stories can build bridges across difference.

Required: Written Blog Posts

Within 24 hours of each visit you will write an entry on your blog which first describes observations–not what you did, but what you saw, heard, noticed, etc.

IMPORTANT: NEVER USE THE RESIDENT’S  REAL NAME IN YOUR POST. THEY HAVE A RIGHT TO PRIVACY.

Be sure that you DO include what you notice about stories–what kinds of stories were told?

GROUPS and dates: (proposed)

Week 1: Sunday Oct. 2 and Monday Oct. 3, Tuesday Oct 4

UR Break Oct. 9 and 10

Week 2: Sunday Oct. 16 and Monday Oct. 17, Tuesday Oct 18

Week 3: Sunday Oct 23 and Monday Oct 24, Tuesday Oct 25

Week 4: Sunday Oct. 30, Monday Oct 31 and Tuesday Nov 1

Week 5: Sunday Nov. 6 and Monday Nov. 7 and Tuesday Nov 8

Extra Week if necessary: Sunday Nov. 13 and Mon. Nov 14, Tuesday Nov. 15

(4)Sunday group: Justin Luke Lexi  Crystal

(6)Monday group:   Ally, Robbynn ,Tilley, Trevor, Maddie Sarah

(6)Tuesday Group: Kristen, Maria, Erika, Lena, Abigail,Tracy

 

Weekly  Plan:

Supplies: I will bring in all supplies at once, before the first night:

Pre wrapped snacks for 160

160 waters

the combination for the snack cabinet lock is 34-12-34

Every week, after you get through security screening:

First, ask Shift Commander to open the door to the storage room across from Shift Command Office. Pick up snacks and waters–one for everyone.

Go to the Unit. Eat snacks and say hello.

 

Week 1: Learning to Listen (Oct 2-4)

Opening Circle ( a story you like: What is a story? Something that has a beginning,a middle and an end! It can be a book, a movie, a song, a play…); writing “I Am” poem; learning to listen—

“An important aspect of telling stories is telling them to a listener.  Do an activity that teaches good listening: learning to listen. First, tell your story to your partner. At the end say “The End.”  The listener should say “Thank you” because giving someone a story from your life is a GIFT! Then the listener should tell back the story they just heard to the original storyteller.  Then reverse roles.”

Pairs: share poem (listening and tell-back exercise)

Closing Circle: debrief

 

Week 2: Memory and Story (Oct 16-18)

Opening Circle: what do you remember from last week?

Talk about memory and how we remember experiences, people, etc. from earlier in our lives. (Memory prompts—the senses)

“We all remember events in our lives.  You can tell about them in the form of a story. Think of a specific time and place when something happened.  Remember what happened just before, and just after…  Remember a time when you were a child and you felt safe.

Turn that into a story (something with a beginning, middle and end)”

Pairs: Do story listening exercise (listen-tell back stories of safety)   *Notice discussions that come after story telling/listening

Closing Circles: what came up?  What did the stories do?

 

Week 3: How do  stories make you feel?( Oct 22-25) 

Opening Circle: What was the best part of last week? what kind of stories do we want to tell today?

Prompt: Tell a story about a time when: You thought you couldn’t do something but figured out that you could.

Pairs: Change listening exercise: say something you related to, connected to, or liked about the story your partner told

Closing Circle: what did you hear?experience?

 

Week 4: Choosing your story (Oct 30- Nov 1)

Opening circle: What was the best part of last week? Can we tell a story that is the same story but tell it a little bit differently?

Ideas: think of a story you have already shared. Try out a story that you want to tell differently or   Choose a different story. What was your favorite story that you told so far? Why?  What story did you not get to tell yet that you want to tell? What is a story that you want people to hear about you? What questions do you want to ask each other?

Pairs: do a story telling of their choice, looking for connections.

Closing Circle: debrief: what is it like to “choose” our stories?

 

Week 5: Closing Project Work (Nov 6-8)

TBD

consider: project produced last spring: https://tellmeastoryweb.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/tell_me_a_story.pdf

 

Extra week—depending on what project we all come up with together, we might do something on separate days or all together to celebrate

 

 

 

List of Extra Story Prompts “Tell a story about a time when…”

1. …you had your favorite meal with your favorite people

2. …You thought you couldn’t do something but figured out that you could.

3. …you laughed really hard.

4. …you were really scared.

5. What is your earliest memory?

6. …it was your first day of school or first day in a new place.

7. …you got stitches or broke a bone.

8. …you helped someone.

9. …someone helped you.