Resources
“The Slumber Party from Hell” by Sue Ellen Allen
What happens to a successful woman when her world falls apart and she is faced with betrayal, breast cancer, and prison? What happens when her pain Is unimaginable and her choices look bleak. When all this happened to Sue Ellen Allen, she chose to turn her pain into power. The death of Gina, her young roommate, coupled with an atmosphere of darkness and negativity, led her to find her passion and purpose behind the bars. Her experience of cancer, prison, and Gina s death is an inspirational story of courage, wisdom, and choices.
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Sue Ellen’s Brilliant Ted Talk: “RE-inventing RE-Entry”
Sue Ellen Allen knows the difficulties that formerly incarcerated individuals face after prison – both as the co-founder of Gina’s Team, a nonprofit helping inmates reenter society, and as a former inmate starting over after her own release in 2009. Through Gina’s Team, she has worked tirelessly to support women in Arizona prisons and provide a foundation for their reentry through a successful prison program. In her drive to Reinvent Reentry, her work also focuses on educating the public about the costs of incarceration and on working with businesses to encourage a “Fair Chance” in hiring practices. She was awarded the Dawson Prize in Memoir in the 2009 Prison Writing Contest for PEN American Center for her memoir, “The Slumber Party from Hell,” in which she discusses the costs for our Incarceration Nation. In 2016, she was a guest of First Lady Michelle Obama at the President’s final State of the Union address as a representative for criminal justice reform.
Reinventing Reentry – Sue Ellen’s legacy org and simulation workshop
Reinventing Reentry, an Arizona 501(c)(3)nonprofit, actively promotes education to both the community and to former inmates. The high rates of recidivism result in more cost to communities and a potential for higher crime rates. This is a bi-partisan public/private collaboration of business, academia, social work, justice and former inmates to assist newly released inmates to gain employment, seek higher education and find housing, thus building safer communities, reducing recidivism and freeing up millions of dollars for education budgets instead.
A Roadmap for Community Investments to End Mass Incarceration
A new research paper from the Square One Project at Columbia University offers the first comprehensive review of experimental social policy interventions that can end mass incarceration. The review demonstrates that greater investments in healthcare, education, employment, housing and social services – as well as increased scientific rigor in implementation – are needed to effectively decarcerate.
Second Chances Program in Ocala
This special recorded livestream of the TRF Lowell 20th Anniversary “Horse Show” presents the horses and the women of the Second Chances program as they work together, every day, to care for one another and to build brighter futures.
Prepare to be inspired!
Angel Horses: Divine Messengers of Hope
This lovely collection tells of the hope and healing that comes from contact with horses. Whether used to give disabled riders a sense of freedom and mobility, to heal wounds of childhood abuse, to assist with work, or simply as loving companions, horses bond with people in ways that change them for the better. The stories, contributed by people from all over the country and from all walks of life, introduce Cholla, the horse who paints pictures; a veterinarian who was reminded of the importance of compassion by a dying horse and a Native American chief; Star, a horse who saved a teenage girl from suicide; the late-blooming rider who embarrassed a horse and learned an important lesson about respecting the feelings of others — even if they have four legs; and many others. Whether running through fields or performing intricate dressage drills, horses carry not only riders but messages of unconditional love and hope.
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Join the ANGEL LADY Movie Talk Book Club!
First assignment: Sue Ellen’s Book “Slumber Party from Hell”
First Discussion with Team Leaders from Sue Ellen’s legacy organization, ”Reinventing Reentry.”
Friday, 4/01 5-5:30 CST