Program Collaboration
The services offered through Connecting for Success are possible due to an ongoing, productive collaboration between the Dorchester County Health Department and the Dorchester Department of Corrections (DDC). Leadership at the DDC facility, where incarcerated fathers and corrections officers now receive yoga and psychoeducation instruction, agreed to accommodate Connecting for Success staff in providing incarcerated fathers with mindfulness supports after seeing a significant change in behavior among participants after the first session.
The DDC hosts Connecting for Success staff when visiting the facility and provides the instructors with gym space to hold their Anger Management Mindful Movements (AMMM) Yoga class for incarcerated fathers. The small 200-bed corrections facility also agreed to the following changes implemented by Connecting for Success staff:
- An increase in frequency of visits from incarcerated parents’ children
- Allowing in-person, interactive family visits for incarcerated fathers after receiving Parenting Inside Out training and/or completing the Anger Management Mindful Movements course
- A waiting room makeover/redesign intended to ease anxieties of children visiting their incarcerated parent
- Virtual visits through tablets temporarily provided to incarcerated parents
- Annual 5-hour Mental Management Mindful Movements trainings for DDC correctional officers and leadership on the impacts of first-hand or second-hand trauma on the brain, accompanied by yoga instruction
Other partners collaborating with the Dorchester County Health Department’s Connecting for Success Program include:
- Dorchester County Public Schools
- Marshy Hope Family Services, LLC
- Channel Marker, Inc., Mental Health and Wellness Support
