REENTRY CIRCLE Mutual Aid GROUPs
FOCUS Reentry Circles aim to abolish carceral systems of control both in our society and in individual people’s lives.
The dual purpose of this mutual aid group is to help people who are formerly incarcerated successfully navigate reentry together while also building the knowledge and collective power to participate in the abolitionist movement.
Group members will build a community of mutual support as they work to identify and build on their strengths, make progress toward their goals, and maintain their freedom. The group will also use education and consciousness-raising to help people understand the prison system as a mechanism of structural oppression and to give people the knowledge, vocabulary, and skills to take political action. Discussions will link the personal and political: members’ subjective experiences will be linked to a broader analysis of the social, economic, and political structures of power that oppress and subjugate us. Throughout all these processes, members will be encouraged to articulate their own needs and develop their own strategies of personal, collective, and political action.
In alignment with a mutual aid model, the group members will direct and guide the activities and structure of the group while learning and practicing the 9 dynamics of mutual aid:
All in the Same Boat/Universality: group members will bond and develop support around their shared experiences and the structures of oppression that contribute to those experiences
Dialectic Process: group members collaborate, debate, and negotiate to develop greater understanding
Discussing Taboos: the group will have the courage to discuss real and sometimes sensitive issues in a respectful way
Individual Problem-Solving: the group should be a place where people practice purposeful use of self and where group members help each other through individual problem-solving while also seeing how members have problems in common and how this process can be a space for collective learning
Mutual Demand: members will commit to the purpose of the group and to dig deep, be serious, and grapple with real issues, working to ensure the success of the group and its individual members.
Mutual Support: members will be committed to the group and to each other; group norms will be that members provide support, caring, and empathy
Rehearsal: group members will use this space to take risks and practice new ways of communicating, sharing, and thinking together. Group members will support this endeavor and develop a group norm where risk-taking is valued and mistakes are met with compassion and support.
Sharing Data: each member contributes to the pool of knowledge and resources
Strength in Numbers: The group will be a space of solidarity and connection where members share hopes and goals in the interconnected realms of the personal and political. The strengths of individual members will also be identified and leveraged to cultivate the strength and power of the group overall.