|
A community that is created to enable hope and success for families who have been impacted by the incarceration of one (or more) of its members is the primary mission of Oasis Village. In the process, many other lives will be touched and enriched by their involvement in crafting and sustaining this cooperative endeavor.
Oasis Village hopes to be created based on the Generations of Hope Community (GHC) model of an intergenerational community as intervention (ICI) begun in 1994 at Hope Meadows in Rantoul, Illinois (for more information, go to www.generationsofhope.org). Oasis Village has the goal of becoming one of the replication sites being developed across the country to address a wide range of social challenges, which would provide access to support and technical assistance from the Generations of Hope Development Corporation in Champaign, IL.
An ICI is a geographically-contiguous intergenerational neighborhood, where some of the residents are facing a specific challenge around which the entire community organizes (e.g. foster care, youth exiting juvenile justice system, young mothers leaving prison, homeless families, grandparents raising grandchildren). An ICI offers a powerful compliment to traditional service systems. Providing social services is an entirely different undertaking when a whole neighborhood, down to the last person, is involved in ensuring the well-being of its people. Through the research and experiences of Hope Meadows, ten guiding principles have been identified as key elements in the creation of a successful intergenerational community.
The Guiding Principles of an Intergenerational Community as Intervention (ICI)
1. Created to address a specific social challenge
2. Presence of three or more generations
3. Physical design facilitates relationships and aging in community
4. Practice grounded in theory and research
5. Evolving program design/learning from experience
6. Older adults are the community’s volunteers
7. Requisite diversity
8. Professional staff know when to guide and when to govern
9. Economic issues are addressed but do not compromise principles
10. Cohesion stopping short of insularity
Based in the Charlottesville, Virginia region, Oasis Village will address the needs of single mothers reentering community after being incarcerated. At Oasis Village, single mothers who have been incarcerated will live in a safe and supportive environment with their child(ren) after their release. Elders living in the village will assist as grandparents and enable each family to be a part of a bigger whole, across multiple generations. With the support of the community, the reunited families will be given opportunities to succeed as the mothers are reintegrated into family and community. While elders will play the primary supportive role in helping these families, their lives will be enriched by a significant sense of purpose and the reciprocal care and support they will receive from the families in return.
In order for Oasis Village to be successful, the number of reentering moms will be limited. Since this will be the case, the initial focus of the village will be relatively limited in scope. The selection process for women who are incarcerated and have dependent children will be quite involved. There will, generally, be two circumstances on which the eligibility process will be based: moms with children in the foster care system, and moms with children being cared for temporarily by a relative or friend with the understanding of reuniting the child with their mother upon her release.
The need for support in the area of prisoner reentry is great, especially for women who are single mothers and have either no family support, or would be returning to families where there are significant barriers to their ability to experience success. According to the Virginia Department of Corrections report for December 2007, there were 1,185 women incarcerated at Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women (FCCW) alone, which is located within 20 miles of Charlottesville. There are also a significant number of women in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail who could benefit from the support of Oasis Village.
|
