The Women in Prison Advocacy Network (WIPAN) is now
operating a voluntary mentoring project which partners mentors from the
community with women being released from prison.
The program works
to encourage participants’ autonomy, supports community reintegration and promotes
learning from participants’ lived experience.
The results from similar programs in other countries show that women leaving
prison are less likely to re-enter prison if they are part of a mentoring
program on their release.
Twenty mentor
volunteers recently completed training and are now waiting to be matched with
women recently released from prison. Women can be referred from any agency,
(government or non-government), and/or anyone involved in their care.
PIAC is supporting the establishment of WIPAN. For more
information, call Samantha at WIPAN on 02 8011 0692 or visit WIPAN online.
Photo credit: publik16’s
flickr.com