Happy Anniversary!

This issue marks the 1 year anniversary of our Deaf Prison Ministries Network eNewsletter! We hope that you've found this newsletter informative as much as we've enjoyed sharing with you different stories about all that is going on within our ministry!

Starting with this issue, we will be introducing a new monthly column called the Question of the Month where we will answer a frequently asked question about Deaf people affected by crime or about any aspect of our ministry. If you have a question about anything we do or might know, please write to us and let us know your question and we just might publish your question and our answer in a future issue!

If you are a new subscriber, or have missed any issues, you can always go to our newsletter sign up page and find a list of all of our back issues for you to catch up on! If you have any ideas on how we can improve our newsletter, please contact us and let us know!

2008 Conference

Our 6th annual Deaf Prison Ministries Conference is almost finalized and soon it will be time to register and make plans to attend! This year's theme will be It is time for an empty nest, which will focus on the restorative process for Deaf ex-offenders after prison. This theme illustrates the process that a mother bird takes to prepare baby birds to "leave the nest" in the same way that the local church and community services organizations should get involved to prepare Deaf prisoners to "leave prison" successfully. We're excited to have the following speakers lined up for our conference this year:

Bill Atwell: Board Chairman of Deaf Prison Ministries Network
Edwin Bergstresser: Deaf Pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church for the Deaf
Bob Blume: Executive Director of Men4Men Ministries
Scott DeLoach: Executive Director of Deaf Prison Ministries Network
Todd Harden: Former Deaf inmate at Orient and North Central Correctional Institutions (Ohio)
David Mason: Deaf Pastor of Liberty Baptist Church of the Deaf
Lenny Moore: Deaf Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church of the Deaf
Arlon Nash: American Sign Language Teachers Association
Vincent Sabino: Team leader of the Deaf Team with the Southeast Recovery and Mental Care Service
Darlene Zangara: Clinical supervisor for the Mental Health and Deafness program with the Communication Services for the Deaf

In addition to this wonderful line up of speakers, we will also be offering the opportunity to visit some Deaf inmates at an Ohio State Prison. Our registration for this year's conference will open on June 1st and it will be announced in our June issue of our eNewsletter. Meanwhile, be sure to mark your calendars for October 2, 3 and 4th and make plans to come to our 6th annual Deaf Prison Ministries Network conference in Columbus, Ohio!

Question of the Month

Question: How long do your residents live at Deaf Prison Ministries Network's aftercare facility, Healing Hands Ranch?

Answer: All of our residents can expect to live at Healing Hands Ranch between 1 to 3 years. This length of time is significantly more than most aftercare facilities which is usually between 6 to 12 months. The reason why our aftercare facility is much longer than most other programs is basically because our Deaf residents receive a much more intensive program to make up for the missed training opportunities that they were generally unable to receive while in prison.

Most aftercare facilities are designed to provide room & board to ex-offenders for a short period of time until they are able to find a job and save up enough funds to venture out on their own. Healing Hands Ranch is set up more like a group home to allow our Deaf ex-offenders to get more comprehensive support such as job training, education opportunities, life skills development, bible studies, and social dynamics. By offering a more extensive program combined with a longer period of time, we can hope that our residents will have a greater chance of succeeding in society upon completion of their program at Healing Hands Ranch.

Have a question? Send in your question to us at newsflash@deafprison.org and we might publish your question and our answer in a future issue of our eNewsletter!

Click here to subscribe to this eNewsletter
Click here to send email to the editor of this eNewsletter