RECONCILIATION AND REENTRY

Embodying Our Values Among Neighbors Exiting Incarceration

Since 2004, our Reentry & Reconciliation (R&R) ministry has built community support teams around over 300 neighbors returning from long-term incarceration. At their heart, these support circles are a covenantal relationship. Teams of 3-5 community volunteers and a returning “partner” commit to live in friendship, mutually support, and be with one another. This reduces the partner’s isolation and alienation, repairs communal fractures created by incarceration, and dramatically decreases the likelihood of a re-offense.

Core Values

RCND’s R&R work rests in the diverse experience and shared values of over 100 community volunteers who comprise our 20+ reentry support circles. As an R&R community, we particularly commit to core values of: Respect, Compassion, Responsibility, and Belonging.

What Does a Support Circle Look Like?

  • “Inner Circle”
    • Three to five community volunteers with one partner (person returning from prison).
    • Meets on a regular schedule (usually every other week) for an hour to an hour-and-a-half for communal time together (e.g. conversation, shared meal, community event).
    • Works to maintain friendly, mutual contact between meetings.
  • “Outer Circle”
    • Broad-based support and accountability from Durham’s reentry community, including:
      • Supervision (e.g. probation/parole)
      • Service Providers (e.g. housing, employment/training, mental health/substance abuse)
    • Provides services to the partner as needed, and guidance and support to the program.
    • Allows “inner circle” to operate in mutual, non-transactional relationship.

How Do We Know We Work?

Over the last 15 years, partners with the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham have re-offended at a rate of 11%, compared with 50-60% for the general population.

How Do I Learn More?

If you would like to learn more, we hold regular training/information sessions for interested congregations and community groups. Connect with us by contacting our Reentry Coordinator Drew Doll (919.228.0997 or reentry@nonviolentdurham.org).

You can also check out this IndyWeek profile of our collaborative reentry work, or a beautiful reflection from long-time R&R volunteer Ira Mueller (below).

I first learned about the Religious Coalition as a member of the Congregation at Duke Chapel, I had volunteered to help provide Sunday evening dinner for the Chapel’s Pathway Fellows (students living together in Durham’s West End while discerning God’s call for their future).

So I go over to Lyon Park this Sunday evening with my contribution for dinner for 15, and the Pathways Director invites me to stay and hear the speaker, [longtime RCND Director] Marcia Owen. Well—there is absolutely nothing SAFE about Marcia Owen! She has a way of drilling right into your heart and soul. I still clearly remember that evening – being blown away by her energy, her love, and her faith, and her desire to witness God’s grace and healing in the more violent settings of Durham.

It took me a couple more years to join Duke Chapel’s R&R support team. Six and a half years later, I can’t imagine life without the team and our partners.

I want to share with you an experience our team had one December. We love to get together, and started a tradition years ago of planning a special gathering—a dinner, outdoor barbecue, or a potluck lunch after attending The Chapel together—and we try to do this several times a year. All of our former partners and their significant others or friends are invited to come, so it’s like a family reunion. Of course, once a partner, always a partner and like family, we have those who stay in more regular contact and those that just pop up from time to time. And, if we haven’t heard from a partner in too long—we go looking for them.

We always try to have one of these gatherings around the Christmas holiday and they’ve become even more fun as our family has grown year by year, and our friendships with our partners have deepened with time. So that December we were blessed to have around the table, in addition to our current faith team members: Cubby who now lived back home in Winston-Salem (and her friend), Zachary, Elvis, Drew (who double dipped as a former re-entry partner and ongoing team member), Von and his wife, and our current partner who brought his sister.

At some point in the lunch, one of our team members thought to ask each of our partners to give us an update on what’s going on in their lives. What we received was so amazing, and so much more than requested. One by one our partners stood and talked about the road they traveled to incarceration, their time and experiences in prison, what it felt like coming out of prison, and what has happened to them since—their hope for the future. Lastly, they talked about what it meant to have the friendship, fellowship, and support of our team as a constant in their lives. They reminded us of what we’d heard from each of them individually over the years—but this time we heard in a glorious and harmonious chorus—that our friendship and support had made a difference and was greatly valued.

We sat at that lunch table in mid-December until around 3:30 in the afternoon. I had other things I’d intended to do that day, and I’m sure others did too. But we didn’t budge! We learned bits and pieces of our beloved partner’s life journeys that day that we’d never known—all shared in the safety and love of our faith and fellowship. It felt like family, and God’s unconditional love was palpable among us. It was obvious that each partner was encouraged and empowered by the presence of others who had shared somewhat similar difficulties, mistakes, and experiences in their past.

We, the volunteers, had come that day so pleased with a cash gift that we’d collected for each partner. But we left in agreement that their gift to us was beyond priceless, and for each one of us, the very best gift of the holiday season. Our partners honored us by allowing us to share their personal journeys, the highs and lows since leaving prison. And we all know that there are lows—with often frustratingly limited opportunities for individuals with felony records. But it’s amazing how each one focused on the successes and joys, and affirmed to us the value of our friendship and support.

I love each of our partners, including the few who didn’t complete their year with us and with whom we’ve lost touch. Yet as I was preparing these remarks, I felt somewhat guilty that I hadn’t reached out to each and every one in the last month. But that’s the beauty of a team—like family, we don’t promise perfection. And when one of us gets distracted, another hopefully steps in. And I do believe they all know that we’re here if there’s a need. Not necessarily with a fix, but with compassion and support.
When searching for the words to describe this R&R ministry and how it has affected me and forced me to grow, I choose to cite just two of the Ten Gleanings Marcia Owen shares in the last chapter of her and Sam Wells’ book Living Without Enemies. And they are: “My soul is for all, because my soul is with all. We are all one in God.” and “Healing is God’s greatest mystery. I can’t explain it. I can’t avoid it.”