Article 2 - Advocacy Project
OBJECTIVE
The objective of our service-learning project is to hold a candle-making workshop for members of the public, held by the ex-offenders from Human-Animal Bond In Ministry – HIM as they will be the ones facilitating the event. We seek to raise awareness and advocate against the stigma associated with ex-offenders. The ex-offender will be given the opportunity to engage with our participants while facilitating our workshop, and there will be a sharing session in which they will address the challenges they face after being released from prison, also the stigma imposed by society on ex-offenders, and they will also discuss how these challenges impacted their life after incarceration.
OUTCOME
The outcome of our project is that the ex-offender will be able to acquire candle-making, interpersonal skills, and other important skill sets that will be useful to them in terms of upgrading or employing in their profession. Our workshop participants will also be involved in community outreach, where they will be able to grasp the difficulties that ex-offenders experience and assist their development while interacting with them. Through this project, we intend to play a role in reintegrating ex-offenders into the community, assisting them and the community in overcoming stigma and prejudice against ex-offender, and encouraging a sense of belonging in them by letting them know that there are people who care about them. We also acknowledged that none of this can be accomplished on an individual basis.
DATE, TIME & LOCATION
Our candle-making workshop will be free of charge for all participants and will take place on December 16, 2022, from 7pm to 9pm at Ngee Ann Polytechnic Blk 35, Level 1, Room 0011.
Our invitation poster
CONCEPT USED
Our project utilizes a few community organizing techniques, the first will be Consciousness Raising as we are raising awareness and advocating on the stigma surrounding ex-offender. As consciousness-raising is the act of striving to raise people's awareness of how a specific issue or cause affects them personally (Good Therapy, 2015). Consciousness-raising also addresses personal values, awareness, and commitment. We were taught that it must be done in a respectful manner, so we decided to do it through a meaningful interaction by coming up with the idea of a workshop. We also considered that, despite the best intentions, only the individual dealing with the difficulties of being an ex-offender is qualified to interpret life. So, we determined that an ex-offender would be the most effective workshop facilitator.
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Our service-learning project is utilizing primary prevention and the promotion of resilience. Primary prevention aims to avoid the development of a specific illness or issue and lower its prevalence in society (Reddy, 2009). We hope that by addressing everyone in the community not to stigmatize our ex-offenders and assisting our ex-offenders to remain out of trouble, we will be able to decrease exposure to possibly relapse scenarios before they go back to their old ways or lead to mental health issues. Promotion of resilience, we hope to instill in our ex-offenders the ability to overcome adversity and experience healthy development in their reintegration journey back into the community. Through this, it helps the ex-offender to overcome obstacles by drawing on their own resources, talents, and other beneficial psychological assets like hope, optimism, and self-efficacy (Hernández et al, 2022).
