To Our Volunteers – Thank You!

The challenges are great and the hard work is up to the individual client, but we are helping to provide the tools needed for each of them to have the opportunity that each of us deserves. Our recidivism rate stands at about 6.3% to date. Nationally, the rate for women (a fast-growing segment of the prison population) is 58%, according to a 2002 federal study. Our low rate is largely due to the guidance, encouragement, training, opportunities and as one client stated, “a warm, family support system” that Changed Choices endeavors to create for its clients. This could not be accomplished without your support.

Ways You Can Help

Prayer

Please pray for our clients. The road ahead for them requires hard work, determination, and faith. Their biggest challenges are finding good jobs and housing. The disappointments are many and our society has made it very difficult for them to move forward. No wonder the recidivism rate is what it is! When doors are slammed in your face, you turn back to what was comfortable before – unless you have the support and determination that our women have.

Donate Online

Your gift to Changed Choices can help provide our teams with the supplies and funds they need to assist our clients. Make a donation.

Inmate Support

• Collect "guideposts" etc. (only religious magazines that would be easy to understand are acceptable) and remove address labels.
• Collect new or little-used paperback books — especially Christian novels.
• Function as a pen pal or mentor, by providing friendship and support to our clients. Pen pals help our clients transform their attitudes and behaviors, and guide them into positive, productive and law-abiding lives. Many female inmates have never known true and unconditional acceptance or love.
• Send monthly cards/letters of encouragement to lonely and discouraged clients.
• Visit a pen pal in prison — sometimes out of the city or state. You must be on their visitation list.
• Sponsor (or help in sponsoring) an inmate who needs a regular stipend. This could be a pen pal.

Transitional Support

• Function as a mentor/friend/encourager to a released client in transition.
• Help with resume writing/job search coaching — work "one on one" with a transitional woman.
• Make job recommendations — seek out and let us know of potential job opportunities.
• Provide transportation — to job interviews, counseling sessions, etc. or donate a bus pass.
• Provide community support — new friends and healthy activities are always a need — invite a woman to a community function, church activity, movie etc. These women are starting a new life and need the wide support and role models that a number of individuals are able to give in normal interaction.
• Provide a church family that is ready to support and encourage — always needed!

Parent and Family Support

• Take children to visit their mother in prison — this means picking up the child(ren) and also becoming a visitor yourself.
• Help in providing school supplies, Christmas and birthday gifts and at times clothing or other emergency supplies for children of a client whose family does not have the resources to do this.
• Mentor a child whose mother is in prison — become a special friend.

Periodic Opportunities

• Assist in the planning and executing of fund raisers.
• Provide guidance and support to a client through the trial process.
• Assist on moving days when clients move into their "new" apartment or home (manpower and trucks needed). Collect needed furniture items. We also are in need of a warehouse!!

Christmas Opportunities

• Sponsor an inmate for a "Christmas Box" available through a designated company — only available in certain prisons.
• Take an active role in the "Christmas Kids" program begun in 2005. Incarcerated mothers are able to request a specific gift (up to $25) for their child and write a note to them. Changed Choices will purchase the gift, wrap it, enclose the note/card from the mother and send it to the child as though it was directly from the mother. This takes time and money but is so worthwhile!

Dental Assistance

While most of our clients are eligible for medical assistance during their transition, some leave prison with dental issues that must be addressed before they can be considered for good jobs. Changed Choices would love to hear from dental professionals who would be willing to provide services from time to time on a pro bono or reduced fee basis. For more information, please contact us at info@changedchoices.org.