FINDING VOICES FINDING LIVES

Puffin West has given a first time grant to the Contemporary American Theatre Company (CATCO) in recognition of their partnership with Healing Broken Circles and a theatre project that they are going to undertake at the Marion Correctional Facility.  This unique  ten-week program will use the lens of theatre to help approximately 30 inmates create, write, edit, rehearse and perform  pivotal scenes about their lives.  Through the theatre experience it is hoped that that these men will find alternative responses and ways to re-examine decisions that they had made in their lives and find a new way to  face the pivotal factors in their lives  that  were toxic to them.  The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s study about adverse childhood experiences has found in  that  study that  writing has been identified as one of the most powerful ways for people to heal from previous  negative experiences.  The study suggests that this type of intervention, i.e. writing honestly about past trauma   and through discussions and workshops that it is possible to reset the stress response system.  Simply said “hope emerges”.

www.catco.org