Our Program
In Prisons
Success Stories Program is a 13-week workshop series based in feminist theory that radically reshapes how people who have caused harm see themselves, their goals, and their relationships to the people closest to them.
We deliver our transformative feminist program in 11 California prisons. Success Stories works primarily with men between the ages of 18-35, who have the highest rates of recidivism. All workshops are led and facilitated by currently or formerly incarcerated people. We're currently working with folks in the following facilities:
-
Pleasant Valley State Prison
-
California State Prison, Corcoran
-
Calipatria State Prison
-
Centinela State Prison
-
Chuckawalla Valley State Prison
-
Ironwood State Prison
-
California Rehabilitation Center, Norco
-
Wasco State Prison
-
North Kern State Prison
-
Kern Valley State Prison
-
Correctional Training Facility, Soledad
In the past, we've worked in: Taft Medium Community Corr. Facility, Shafter MCCF, and Delano MCCF.
The program utilizes a “Relate – Investigate – Recreate” model where peer facilitators seek to relate with participants by describing how they personally dealt with or deal with similar thoughts and behaviors. After graduating, participants stay connected as a part of our Alumni Network, which offers resource sharing, programming, and accountability to continue on their individual and collective journeys. Many participants go on to become facilitators.
What Our Participants Say about the program
“...we all have pain, we all have a past, we all have stuff we are carrying around, we all have dark secrets that we think nobody else is going to understand. And, as soon as we start talking about it, somebody else who doesn’t look like us or talk like us… gets it. And, by opening up that unhealed wound someone else is getting free with me.”
​
- Benjamin Participant, CTF
“Success Stories has impacted my life phenomenally within the last six weeks. It has taught me to search deeply within, to find and address the root of the problem many of us suffer from; Toxic Masculinity and Patriarchy.”
- Kendall Boyd Facilitator, Delano Prison
​
“My experience with Success Stories has been very enlightening on how my behaviors are rooted in my past as a young kid or teen. And being able to identify those things, it has helped me take a look at all of my thoughts and actions towards others. I appreciate this curriculum and believe it will help me tomorrow, next week and next year… for the rest of my life.”
- Anthony Maldonado Facilitator, Delano Prison
​
“Success Stories has invited a re-evaluation on my life; on what I’ve been taught adds value and makes me a man. I’ve learned through Success Stories how to search and find the real problem of my anger and fears. The curriculum creates a space for transformation on an unprecedented level.”
- Don Lacey III Facilitator, Delano Prison
​
​
“The message Success Stories delivers, men need to hear. Success Stories gets men clear on how to actually be accountable, and how to prioritize one’s goals and create a vision.”
- Floyd D Collins Graduate, CTF
“The Self is not something we find, it is something we create. Our trials and tribulations, accomplishments plus goals are the very fabrics of who we are. Everyone we encounter is interwoven in this fabric and deserves… us.”
- Facilitator, Shafter Prison
​
“Success Stories is a program that deals with real life issues that society finds difficult to deal with and gives participants the opportunity to ask “why” with an open mind and a different view of life.”
- Facilitator, Shafter Prison
​
Success Stories is challenging... “It challenges my ideas, my beliefs, my feelings. And yet those challenges are my blessings.”
- Facilitator, Shafter Prison
​
​