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- EIN 82-0921310
- info@readingbetweenthelines.org
- 5614 S Dorchester Ave Chicago IL 60637 USA
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Nonprofit Overview
Causes: Crime & Law, Rehabilitation Services for Offenders
Mission: Mission Statement: Reading Between the Lines® uses discussion of literature to build critical thinking and communication skills with formerly and currently incarcerated women and men. This intellectual exchange nurtures self-confidence and collaboration, offering participants a chance for a different future.
Results: In late 2013, Founder and Executive Director Joan Shapiro piloted Reading Between the Lines® at a women’s halfway house in Chicago. Based on need, impact and cost-effectiveness, the program was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in early 2017 and is now core curriculum at four halfway houses on Chicago’s South and West Sides and holds discussions 50 weeks of the year. Midway through its second fiscal year, the organization will have worked with over 700 participants, trained more than a dozen volunteer facilitators from academia and business and built a growing base of generous donors.
Target demographics: Currently and previously incarcerated adults build critical thinking a communication skills.
Direct beneficiaries per year: Over 600 participants.
Geographic areas served: The South and West sides of Chicago, IL
Programs: The strengths of Reading Between the Lines® are its focus on developing the critical thinking and communication tools an individual needs, its cost effectiveness, its creative engagement between participant and discussion facilitator and its timeliness. It is built on the premise that serious programmatic interventions with the re-entry population have a positive effect on individual lives and society by helping to reduce recidivism. Illinois’ normal rate of recidivism is 43% after three years (almost 75% after five years nationally), whereas our partner facilities claim rates of 5-20%. The second premise is that validating self-confidence as a person worthy to be heard can be transformative. Sitting around a Reading Between the Lines® table is to participate on a level playing field, where men and women, who by and large have never engaged in intellectual exercise, hear their opinions taken seriously, exchange ideas in earnest and in laughter, build trust and get genuine enjoyment from what for most is a new experience. To our knowledge, there are few if any programs whose core focus is on these foundational skills. Precisely because they are fundamental to contributing anew to family, job and community, we believe that the program complements almost any other re-entry program, enhancing success for all.