Every year, more than 650,000 people are released from prison, and roughly two-thirds are rearrested within three years of release. At the same time, people re-entering society face steep barriers, including difficulty obtaining stable employment, housing, and education, as well as limited access to meaningful community support. Stigma, trauma, and systemic inequities compound these challenges, making targeted support around self-regulation, connection, and purpose-driven growth essential for sustainable re-entry and long-term well-being.
La Maida Project’s programming responds to this need by providing social and emotional learning practices, emotional regulation tools, and guided storytelling activities that help participants reconnect with their sense of purpose and rewrite their narrative beyond incarceration.
Our Reentry Workshop Series is a four-session program exploring the foundational pillars of our health framing, ecological trauma-informed approach, theory of change, and accessible, actionable steps to implementation in daily life.
SESSIONS:
Health & Human Nature
This session is designed to explore the answers to the deceptively simple question, “What is health?” and come to a more accurate and empowering view of health that accounts for connection to self, community, purpose, and the natural world as the essential building blocks of mental health and well-being. The session empowers participants to view health as something that they have the agency to shape and rebuild, even after difficult life experiences.
Stress & Regulation
This session builds upon the broadened definition of health and delves deeper into the role of community and relationships in health. The workshop explores the brain’s response to stress and trauma, tools to self-regulate, and the powerful impact of supportive relationships and community belonging. The session also highlights how building new community connections based on shared values can reduce stress and provide support during the re-entry process.
Story & Purpose
This session looks at the role of purpose in shaping health and identity. Through values-based activities and storytelling, participants reflect on their experiences and begin to imagine a future that is not defined by incarceration. The session helps uncover personal strengths, guiding values, and possibilities for new goals and direction.
Integration
The Integration Session provides space to revisit key concepts and apply them directly to the lived experiences and challenges of justice-impacted individuals. Participants reflect on the tools and practices they’ve learned, exploring how to use them in everyday life, in building new supportive connections, and in pursuing goals for the future. This session highlights how the ideas from the program can become resources for navigating challenges, strengthening self-agency, and shaping a vision beyond incarceration.
PROGRAM INCLUDES:
Discovery and customization, program workbook, pre and post session exercises, post session evaluation, and a wrap report.
