Dearest Truth Be Told Family,

Image courtesy of Al-Anon

Working the twelve steps can be humbling. As a new comer to Al-Anon and  who  is  on the fence of involvement, I still receive great wisdom and nudges  from the few meetings I do  attend. I am urged to speak my truth.  So here is my amend to Truth Be Told. I have been in Austin for over a year after moving from Vermont. When I first was here  I became very enthusiastic about  the organization. Then my life began to happen full of financial responsibilities, job and tending to my marriage. About a month ago I ran into Nathalie promising I would follow up with the need for a dance facilitator with one of the groups. Emails came and went about the urgent need for facilitators and I avoided them. And here is my character defect: making promises too quickly and not  following up when I feel overwhelmed.

Instead of  taking the time to step back before I can get real with what  God  is really asking me to do, I say “yes.”  The guidance I am receiving now,  from that “still small voice,”  tells me that  my first few years in Austin are about creating a financial stability in work that is essential.  Since I am a  called to be a counselor for others  my emotional well is  not capable of doing anything more. I need time, a lot of down time.

Instead I feel God is asking me  to go to more Al-Anon meetings, get off the fence about my own need for  connection and  community,  and tend to my own deep wounds and hunger for God.

I apologize for my inconsistancy and not following through.  I want to make choices when I am really ready and can be a responsible player. I am getting there. It takes a life time to grow up. Will you love me in my growing up? I know if and when I am called to be more involved with Truth Be Told, I will have a lot to offer. I do.

Obedience is a rub. But my way is the old way and never works.

Hope to see you at Al-Anon–(if any of you attend), lunch,  a walk or a interplay fun afternoon!

Peace,

JULIANA

How did you come to start Truth be Told?

Nathalie speaks at the 2011 annual TBT luncheon

My spiritual life has been important to me since I was 12 years old. Being honest with myself and others, and walking my talk has been a goal all my adult life Seeking personal and spiritual growth tools and passing them on has been my joy and passion. I loved being with church ladies like myself and nurtured and ministered to women friends and church ladies for the years from 35-52. But every spiritual person has to face at some point what they are willing to do that is outside their comfort zone, for the simple reason that it is spiritually unsound and inconsistent to always stay within the boundaries of what we are used to.

I was afraid of being face to face with people in great need.

I had a middle class, financially secure upbringing, with stable, strong and consistent role models in my parents. I did not identify with nor feel emotionally safe with people who were down and out, in poverty, or beyond the bounds of polite society. When I finally made the decision to do something about the shame I felt for having a life easier than others and for avoiding doing anything other than giving money from a distance – I chose to start with visiting women in prison. It was not a noble reason. I felt less guilt since I couldn’t be expected to take them home with me, than I felt when I fed the homeless and went home to my good house with extra rooms. So I got the TDCJ training required of any TDCJ volunteer. There I met a British, Jewish woman from Lockhart who wanted to do something to help women with their self-esteem. I learned Lockhart prison was the closest prison to Austin with female population.

When my new friend learned I was a Christian, she said “You have to go through a chaplain to volunteer. You can speak their language, I don’t. Will you go meet with the Chaplain and find out if there is something we can do together?” I was delighted at the idea of helping women with their self-esteem, and didn’t feel called toward doing anything evangelical – they already have many Bible-based programs and volunteers in prisons in Texas.

On the day I met the Chaplain- he told me there was nothing available for volunteers to do in the middle of the day, the middle of the week, which is when she and I could volunteer. I shook his hand and left – but when I got home that evening – he had called and invited me to call back right away. It turned out that a Warden had seen us talking just before I left the building, and asked him who I was and what I wanted. When he told her I was a writer/speaker who wanted to volunteer – she was ecstatic.

She had a strong desire to have a program that would teach the women to tell their stories of what brought them to prison to juveniles on probation, to keep the kids from following their footsteps to prison.

When the Chaplain said. “But we have Windham school programming and no room for volunteer programs during the day time hours” she also said, “Unbeknownst to you, I just fired the sex therapist. You can take his classroom and when we hire a new one – I will find a place.” That’s how we started, and met in the visitation room for the 1st year of our work at Lockhart prison. It was a joyous and fortuitous beginning for me and for the women, beginning in February of 2000. I invited Carol Waid, a writing friend, to come tell her story to our first graduating class. She fell in love with the women and they with her, and she settled in to help with this work. Carol invited her friend Suzanne Armistead, a dancer, to come to a graduation – and in the next 2 years, Suzanne and Carol started their own Talk to Me Classes – taking our program from one (telling your story through public speaking class called Talk to Me Speaking) to three, by adding Talk to Me Circle(Writing) and Talk to Me Movement classes. At the end of 2003, at Carol and Suzanne’s initiative, we become a nonprofit named Truth Be Told, and had our first board.

Nathalie Sorrell (far right) with Truth Be Told graduates

Why do you feel this work is so important?

Women in prison are an invisible part of our community. Most of us do not want to know or think about or see them. Most of us do not want them as neighbors. Most have been abused and been victims long before they became perpetrators of crimes.

Truth Be Told offers practical and creative tools (4 C’s – Communication Skills, Community Building, Creativity and Caring for Self) to these women to heal from their past, and choose a different path for themselves for their future. Most of them are mothers. IF they practice using these tools while they’re still in prison, then practice them when they are released into a society who mostly still doesn’t want to see them or hear from them or offer them housing or jobs … they may be able to break the pattern of abuse and neglect that brought them to prison before it’s too late to be a different kind of role model for their children.

In our classes, these traumatized women who’ve lived affected by family secrets for years, now tell their stories in a safe community. They learn the tools of communicating their truth and listening respectfully to others. They are building communities of women who share their values, and learning not to betray themselves and in most cases, each other. They experience the transformative power of expressing formerly destructive emotions through the arts. They learn that being themselves and doing every assignment in their unique way is a creative act. They are learning to care for themselves enough to value their way of being and doing things in the world, and they are learning techniques for self- comforting and self-care in a prison environment where it is against the rules to hug or have tender, nurturing physical contact with each other, officers or in many cases, volunteers.

They will come out, most of them, and be part of our world. We believe it is important to give them tools to heal and accept their past, and make it fertilizer for a future that is healthy. And that’s not even mentioning what it does for the volunteers. Every volunteer is expected to look at the prison she has experience and helped to create in her own life, through her decisions. And she uses the same tools (4 Cs) in all her interactions with the women we serve and with each other. There is not a prison facilitator who doesn’t feel that this work has changed her for the better. We mostly feel that we get more than we give. Our world is a better place for our doing this work and learning about ourselves in relationship to these women.

What is one major thing that YOU have received back from your work with TBT?

I was born a show-and-tell girl to parents who were not performers, nor even particularly valuing of spoken communication skills. (We all love good writers.) I am a personal and spiritual growth junkie, and I can’t get enough of meaningful relationships and spiritual adventures. These traits can cause me grief or joy, depending on how much time I spend around the people who would prefer I sit still and hush up, or who delight in what comes naturally to me. At the prison, there is a captive audience of women who choose my class. They seem to value every single thing I do – and think my willingness to share my experiences and tools and stories and life with them is GREAT! They love my undivided attention, ask for my guidance, follow it and come back to report how it turned out. What Mom and wife in our world wouldn’t love this opportunity! My own family is relieved I have this outlet for my relentless navel- gazing and intense love of these topics.

Co-founders Nathalie Sorrell (front right) and Carol Waid (front left) at the 2011 Facilitator Pilot Training

What are some of the most recent developments at TBT that you are excited about?

At the end of September 2011, we completed a pilot training project, and are learning how to prepare others to do this work with incarcerated women in prisons or jails near them.

In 2012, we need funding to complete and find a way through marketing and social media and word of mouth to offer this remarkable TBT Model Program Tool Kit, and offer trainings that combine online work, teleconference calls, and an on-site weekend training in Austin.

We need women with a heart for women whose lives have been messy, and ideally some leadership skills in facilitating groups, and ideally, some prison experience or experience with women in poverty to be able to step into this work and start it in prisons where we aren’t already doing it.

Our free annual lunch fundraiser is a guaranteed meaningful and interesting 1 hour where you’ll meet some of our graduates from around Texas, hear their stories and an incredibly voice singing about being CHANGED, see a film of the work in the prison, and be asked in a low key way in the last 8 minutes to consider contributing financially to our work. I may be a church lady – but this work is based on the idea of a higher power as defined by each person. We are spiritually free thinkers of every kind: Buddhist, Jewish, native American, 12 step practitioners.

My experience with the Truth Be Told program has been as an outsider looking in. I was offered the opportunity to attend a graduation and on a whim I found myself in a car one day on the way to prison. I got the sense that everybody found it sort of amusing that we were on our way to a place that we all knew we didn’t belong, and we all awkwardly chatted about what we did for work, for fun – it was like my fellow passengers and I wanted to remind each other (and ourselves) of the things we got to do, because we were most certainly free.

As I made my way through the parking lot, into the sterile lobby, and through the metal detector (I was sure it would go off, and that they would discover something criminal in my pocket) things got pretty real. I’d never been frisked before. It didn’t matter in this place wether or not you considered yourself a trustworthy person, a stranger was going to put their hands on you and it made me feel like I was guilty of something. The group was instructed not to give out any personal information or take anything from the prisoners to the outside. These warnings were sort of eerie.

We had to pass through the men’s section of the prison first, and my stomach was flipping; I was trying really hard not to heed those instincts to pull my arms tight around my body, hide my face, or even worse – stare. I was reacting to a vague fear of ‘prisoners’ or maybe just of men, when really they were just pushing brooms and talking to each other.You can think you’re pretty tough until you’re actually standing next to the kind of people you thought were ‘put away’. It took a while to make it through to where we were going because we had to pass through a series of locked doors, but eventually we got to a big gym-like room. There were a few chairs set up in front of a podium. It reminded me of elementary school.

And the women came in a few at a time, giddy I think to have an audience who cared about their accomplishments, and they proceeded with their graduation.

It all got me thinking about the real differences between me and these women, or if there were any. Here were a bunch of women who were really very talented – one in particular kind of stunned me with her one-person autobiographical play – but even in appreciating that they were, and that they were people who had suffered, they were also women who had done some pretty nasty things. They had turned their suffering into the suffering of other people in one way or another.

We all know someone who has been through something terrible and came out the other side more altruistic, more productive, and more beautiful. And these individuals are often used as ‘proof’ that people with violent histories don’t HAVE to commit crimes, and so ‘proof’ that the people who are in prison deserve to be there. On the other hand, It is also tempting when hearing what people have been through to say “if my life had been just a little different, maybe I would be here too”.  The experience of this event made me feel a lot of things and definitely made me examine my beliefs about myself and about the things in my life that kept me away from places like this.

I can’t really answer the question of “are we the same or are we different”. I think the point is maybe that we are both. In the grand picture, I am separated from these people because of choices I have made (and big steel doors). I am united with these people because we are people – and specifically, women. As a woman I feel like it is my responsibility to examine all of the ways we can protect ourselves and each other from a fate that doesn’t allow us the freedom to explore our potential in the world. And that’s what draws me to the Truth Be Told program. It doesn’t force anyone to choose a side – the women in this program are encouraged to admit that they could have made different choices, not blame other people, and be open about their past.

They aren’t told that they are unworthy, but they also aren’t told that they are victims of circumstance. I think there is a lesson in that philosophy for everyone.

I was released from prison May 11, 2009 after serving a three-year sentence. You see, I was one of those people that thought this could never happen to me…well, it did. I was one choice away from making the right decision and I chose to drink and drive with my two-year old daughter in the car. I had a wreck, it killed someone, and I failed to stop and render aid. I still remember the sights, sounds and smell of that day and throughout the days of my punishment…and the words of Truth Be Told: “Your story is a gift.” What an amazingly powerful way to renew not only my life but the lives of my husband, six children, and all those around me!

Upon my release I became involved with the Beyond Bars program – I have been given the opportunity to speak publicly many times: a guest speaker at AA, at the Texas Legislature Hearing, held at the State Capitol in January 2010, and I have been interviewed by an Austin area news station. I have participated and completed the pilot program for facilitator training. There’s always been a fear within me of recidivism…only my return to prison entails teaching and learning from others. I have been able to revisit two prisons I served time in during those three years with no option of staying!

I’ve had the opportunity to see, experience, and listen from the other side as a volunteer. Hearing stories from the women in those moments was extremely powerful…hoping that they would see from my example that life can be good again and that there is hope. That’s my prayer…I practice this program not only within myself but also in all my affairs, especially with my family.

Being free has not been a bed of roses, at the low points I find myself dump writing instead of drinking (a practice of TBT I very gratefully learned) and at the end of it all, I know that I am responsible for all my choices. People come to me now with their problems and I respond in the language I learned from this amazing program…the best way to learn is to teach and it’s a continuous cycle.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read a little of my story and experience…I am so grateful to have this opportunity and believe that it’s a program for the incarcerated: whether behind bars physically or the ones that seem invisible that keep us confined within ourselves. Truth Be Told has been and continues to be a light to my path’s journey.

* * *

Please help us further our mission, enabling transformation for a forgotten population of women. When you consider your charitable giving, please take TBT’s needs into account. If you have an unfulfilled pledge to us, or if you’ve been meaning to make a contribution, please make your tax-deductible donation now. Donations can be made directly from our website, via the PayPal link at: www.truth-be-told.org.

Prison isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when most people think of volunteer work, but that’s exactly what one Central Texas woman decided to do 11 years ago. Now, a successful nonprofit organization called Truth Be Told helps hundreds of women behind bars.

“I went into the prison to volunteer,” Nathalie Sorrell, co-founder of Truth Be Told said. “A guilty church lady just wanting to do something for people whose lives had been a lot more difficult than mine had been.”

Sorrell saw a need for a non-evangelical program for imprisoned women, so she started a program to help them develop communication skills.

“It’s about teaching the women to speak the truth about their own experience, and to stop running, or hiding from their past,” she said.

Elizabeth Wilkerson became a graduate of the Truth Be Told program, and says it changed her life.

Wilkerson was drinking and driving on her way to the beach with her two-year-old when she crashed.

“I was looking at her in the rearview mirror and the phone rang in my car and I reached down to grab it, and when I did I lost control of the car,” Wilkerson said. “The cop came to the window and he said, ‘Ma’am, it’s going to be OK. You just had an accident.’ I said ‘It’s not going to be OK. I’ve been drinking.’ And he said, ‘Oh my God. What about that man back there?’ And I said ‘What man?””

Wilkerson didn’t realize she had hit a man on a motorcycle. She was charged with intoxication, manslaughter, failure to render aid and DWI with a child. She had to leave her house, her family and life as she knew it behind as she served her sentence of five years in prison.

“I know that prison isn’t supposed to be summer camp, but there are a lot of things that I saw, that I wish I hadn’t seen,” Wilkerson said.

Now, years after serving her sentence, Wilkerson continues to speak the truth about the story of one tragic night she can’t take back. Now, she is pushing forward to teach others not to make the same mistake.

“They supported us and gave us tools to use every step of the way, how to communicate,” Wilkerson said of the Truth Be Told program.

Truth Be Told meets at prisons around Central Texas several times a month, and they’re looking for more volunteers. For more information on how to lend a helping hand, visit TruthBeTold.org.

I grew up in a Hispanic culture that believed girls should be seen and not heard. I was never told I could be anything more than someone’s wife or mother. Those were the only options I could remember being giving while I was growing up. All I wanted was to figure out who I was and I had no idea how to begin, so I always did what was expected of me.

Margie tells her truth at the TBT annual luncheon

I could tell you about what it was like growing up with an alcoholic father. My father was always gone working, but my mother was always present. I could tell you that violence in my family was normal. I could tell you about the responsibilities of being the oldest child of a family of six. I could tell you about growing up with chickens, pigs and cattle, and having to help care for them. I could tell you about missing out on most of my sixth grade year because I had to have hip surgery, and placed on crutches for six months. I could tell you about missing some of my seventh grade year because I had to have my other hip operated on, and walk with crutches for another six months.

I could tell you what it was like to be kidnapped and held against my will at the age of 16. I could tell you what it was like to have my first child by the man that kidnapped me and be forced to marry him. I could tell what it was like to be in and out of relationships because without a man I felt I could not survive.

I could tell you what it was like to be abused physically, mentally and spiritually, until all I could do was run from everyone.

I could tell you what it was like to have three children and have no clue what to do to be a good parent. I could tell you what it was like to have family steal your children because they felt you were not fit to raise them. I could tell you what it was like to be so lost that when I was introduced to drugs I felt I had found an answer to all my pain. I could tell you what it was like to be set up for a drug deal gone bad, and be forced to work for drug dealers to pay off a debt. I could tell you about being so naïve I believed it was my only way out of my situation at the time.

Margie and other TBT graduates, with founders Carol Waid and Nathalie Sorrell (front)

I could tell you about how I learned to hustle and hustle I did for the following 13 years until I became a problem to Tarrant county, and they began trying to catch me for my illegal activities. I could tell you about how Tarrant County arrested me twice in the same year. I could tell you about how I was placed on probation and sent through out-patient treatment but I could not stop using drugs. I could tell you about how my hustle turned from being a way to make money into a way to pay for my using.

I could tell you about being arrested a third time and how I ran. I could tell you about how I was not only hiding from the law but hiding from organized crime dealers because I no longer wanted to be on the streets. I could tell you about being tired of running after a year and a half, so I turned myself in while being pulled over on a routine traffic stop. I could tell you about being in prison for 18 ½ months. I could tell you about meeting Jesus within the prison walls.

I could tell you about meeting Truth Be Told and learning about the 4Cs: community building, creativity, caring for self and communication skills.

I could tell you about being released from prison and having to rebuild my life.  I could tell you about staying in touch with Truth Be Told after my release. I could tell you about returning to a relationship that no longer fit me because he was still using. I could tell you about having to leave the relationship after two years. I could tell you about being at a cross roads with myself, and making the decision not to screw up my life any more.  

I could tell you about becoming a part of my community, which I learned from the Short Timers class facilitated by Carol. I could tell you about how coming into recovery saved my life. I could tell you about enrolling in college. I could tell you about completing my parole this past July. I could tell you about receiving scholarships. I could tell you about having a 4.o GPA and becoming part of honor society. I could tell you about receiving awards of recognition for my community activities.

Graduates Candy & Margie receiving their quilts from Truth Be Told

I could tell you about how I will graduate in April. I could tell you about all the support I have received for telling my truth. All of these things that I could tell you about are the things that have made me who I am but most of all I must tell you that my transformation was not possible without God. Nothing is possible without God and everything is possible through God.

I stand here before you to say that those things that I went through are just those things I went through. My decisions were not always the right ones but it was all I knew to do for what I had. Today I would like to think I am making better choices for myself and everyone involved in my life. I feel I am well on my way to being an asset instead of a deficit. I no longer live in any prison and I have become a vessel for God to use for the good of others.

I hope my story has blessed someone because it is my truth and I needed to share it with you.
Thank you!

Our executive director, Shannon Holtzendorf, asked me to stand up here today and talk about how my experience as a Truth Be Told class facilitator has changed me. As I thought about what I wanted to say, I realized that the word change didn’t really fit. My journey with Truth Be Told has been more like an awakening. This organization – the women who volunteer alongside me and the women who enter my classes each semester — have helped bring out the potential that has always been within me, but had remained dormant until now.

My journey with Truth Be Told has been a series of turning points in which others have recognized something in me that I couldn’t see and created opportunities for me to step forward, find my voice and shine. All I ever brought to the table from the very beginning was a genuine desire to work toward a greater good. I also felt strongly that I wanted to interact directly with those in need.

In the fall of 2008, I attended my first Truth Be Told graduation as a volunteer audience member. I was so impressed with the work this organization was doing that I told Shannon I’d like to volunteer my services as a writer and editor – did they need help with their website or a brochure? Well, they didn’t need help with those things, but Shannon called me a few weeks later and asked if I’d like to teach a creative writing workshop – just one afternoon for two hours, whatever I wanted to teach.

Never in a million years did I see myself leading a writing workshop in a prison (I’d never even taught before), but Shannon seemed so certain that I had something to offer – and I trusted that and I said yes. I cobbled together a lesson plan and I went into that prison and I taught that workshop.  And let me tell you – the women were so responsive. The energy in that classroom was palpable – there was a hunger to do differently, to do better, to self-discover. I was hooked. I wanted to find a way to teach again. I thought perhaps it would be another workshop some day.

Nathalie Sorrell, left, and Katie at the TBT Luncheon

But Nathalie Sorrell – a co-founder of Truth Be Told – had bigger ideas. She heard about my experience leading the workshop and said, “I don’t know if you have the interest level or the time, but what if you trained to be a class facilitator with Truth Be Told?”

Never in a million years did I see myself as capable or qualified to lead a semester of classes behind bars, but here was this opportunity and Nathalie believed in me. And I trusted that and I said yes.

Two semesters into my facilitating, Nathalie and Carol Waid (Truth Be Told’s other co-founder) were invited by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to expand the program to the Hilltop unit in Gatesville. They needed someone to step up and run the program at Lockhart. They turned to me.

Never in million years did I see myself capable or qualified to oversee a program for incarcerated women, but here was this opportunity and they believed in me. And I trusted that and I said yes.

So now I stand before you, a Talk to Me class facilitator and a behind bars program coordinator. My experience with Truth Be Told has awakened in me a teacher, a leader, a diplomat, a moderator, a respectful listener — a wiser woman.

But this is par for the course for Truth Be Told. That’s what this program does.

It awakens the good stuff in people. It breaks down the walls, casts aside the doubts, looks directly in the face of denial and awakens the best in us.

One rap described a bad relationship:

“In the end I’ll be the one looking down on you in years to come. However you should know these are not words of hatred or retaliation. Rather, with you, I’m considering true reconciliation. Although you’ve managed to cause me more pain than I possibly take. Ima just turn my back and let it go for me and my child’s sake.”

We clapped and encouraged each person as they spoke words of strength and confidence. I had to fight back tears at the sight of it. Actually, I often have to contain my emotions in these classes as I hear stories of abuse and neglect or when something like the forgiveness rap happens.

Truth Be Told asks potential facilitators to attend a personal interview as part of a discernment process before they start working in the prisons. There were other potential facilitators in my interview along with 2 experienced facilitators and a coach who had worked many years in Texas prisons. My biggest concern going in was that the women would be cynical and not interested in what we had to offer. They assured me that the women are happy to have something different in their day and appreciate that we are making a special effort to come and listen to them.

Some other helpful advice from the interview was that we shouldn’t fear that the women might become violent during the class. If they had committed a violent act in the past it was during a moment of extreme emotion and was not likely to happen in the classroom. They also stressed that the women need to be seen, valued and nurtured even if they feel they don’t deserve it. This is where change can take place.

When friends and family ask how I feel about the women, I tell them I feel great compassion for them. Some wonder about this compassion, after all, these women have allegedly committed crimes, but I look at if differently. I think we should ask ourselves if we would have done any better if we had grown up in the same conditions as these women. Instead of looking down on them we should remind ourselves that most volunteers have not experienced the amount of sexual assault, rejection, violence, or seen the heavy drug use that they have. Consider for a moment that many were innocent children who have been through hell and had nowhere to turn but to drugs or to people who led them into crime. This is where my compassion comes from.

For compassion to become transformation we must step into these uncomfortable relationships where there is great suffering. Maybe the time we take to listen and provide some tools will make the difference for just one person in the class. What a gift it would be to that person and the world.

Jeannine Caracciolo

We are so EXCITED to be inviting you to be a part of Beyond Bars, in action. We will be offering the 4 C’s community building, communication skills, creativity, and caring for self, with Conference Calls and Social Media (Facebook). This group is only for TBT graduates, so YOU have been handpicked to participate in this exciting continuation of community building. Our first topic will be about Embracing the Holidays Through Creativity. If you are interested, please RSVP by December 1st. We are limiting this first call to 10 participants.

To give you a brief outline of what the vision is for this NEW communication outreach: we are seeking new ways to stay connected and keep you involved. We will discovering, together, if these calls can bridge the gap of your time in the TBT community, Behind Bars, and your growing lives Beyond Bars. We want to see if this is something that you will want to participate in on a monthly or bi-weekly basis.

So, for now, we need to know if you can commit to the conference call on December 12th. I will give you more detailed information about how to get on the conference call in a later email. You will need to be able to make the call from a place that is quiet, and you will need to know how to work your mute button on your phone. We will send you more detailed information about the first call, but the first and most important thing is for you to let us know if you are interested.

Date of first call: Monday, December 12, 2011
Time: 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Topic: Embracing the Holidays Through Creativity

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Carol Waid
Co-Founder of Truth Be Told
Director of Beyond Bars
www.truth-be-told.org

Click to watch a news video about Truth Be Told

Have you ever wanted to attend a Truth Be Told graduation program, and see for yourself the incredible transformative effect of our programs?

You are invited to participate as a compassionate and supportive witness at a presentation and celebration of incarcerated women who have completed Truth Be Told’s TALK TO ME classes at Gatesville’s Hilltop Prison.

When: Thursday, November 17, 5:30-7:30 pm (must arrive by 4:30 for briefing)

Where: Hilltop Prison (a minimum security TDCJ women’s prison), Gatesville, TX

Please RSVP by sending an email to office@truth-be-told.org. We will then contact you to gather additional information required by the prison for their pre-screening process. Please provide us with your home and cell phone numbers when you RSVP.

There are two spots left! We will send an email to those who RSVP with further information about dress code, directions from Waco and Temple to Hilltop prison, and dinner afterward for those who want to attend and debrief.

Image from CultureMap Austin

MORE ABOUT THE TRUTH BE TOLD GATESVILLE GRADUATION

All TBT programs focus on Communication skills development, Community building and Creativity. The creativity in our classes becomes a tool for redirecting emotional turmoil into creative arts and outlets other than depression or aggression.

At this graduation, you will hear every participant’s voice as the women perform or share in some creative way what they have discovered about themselves as they’ve faced the trauma and secrets of their past, and moved into a safe community for truth telling and character building. For inmates, the experience of being listened to by respectful and compassionate witnesses is rare. TBT graduation witnesses are typically deeply moved by the courage and honesty of these women. The mutually supportive community that has developed among the women is also inspiring. A Truth Be Told graduation is often a transformative experience for both inmates and guests.

We especially need guests from Waco, Temple, and Gatesville to witness this journey with us.

Please email office@truth-be-told.org if you would like to attend. There are two spots left!