As part of our ongoing series of workshops and book discussions at CRCI, we gathered last Thursday for a communication workshop. More specifically, for some of the funniest and most engaging public speaking activities out there.

The Prison Education Program has been developing writing workshops over the past couple of years to support current Inside-Out students in improving their confidence and to offer them some of the writing support that they could receive from on-campus resources if they were on-campus UO students. We have been developing a format that we have most successfully delivered now at Columbia River Correctional Institution: Academic Writing Parts 1 and 2.

The UO PEP has expanded our “satellite campuses” to include Columbia River Correctional Institution in Portland. This minimum-security prison has become a space for current UO students as well as UO alumni to come together to offer workshops and book discussions. We are now committed to meeting at least once a month, and to diversifying our program offerings to best serve repeat participants, as well as engage new ones.