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Tag: incarceration

  • Crime, Community Reintegration, Trauma & Neuroscience

    Person walking on a suspension bridge toward a forest with Better Life Integration and Support superimposed on it.

    As the Better Life Team enters fall, the volume of Offenders’ requests for faith community reintegration support remains very similar to when Better Life Integration & Support held the Correctional Service Canada (CSC) Faith Community Reintegration (FCRP) contract.

    What that means is that Better Life continues to hold a trusted place with both Offenders seeking trusted community reintegration support, and just as significantly, with the large network of community reintegration partners, including CSC parole offices and interventions staff within the Correctional Institutions.

    However, this only tells part of the story—one reinforced for me weekly, as Better Life’s acting executive director—while the (invaluable) rest of the story is that the larger Better Life Team is made up of individuals whose faith is so significant and tangible to them that they continue to sacrificially invest their lives in supporting Offenders.

    Behind this position of trust we’ve earned in faith community reintegration support circles are the individuals who spend hours each week, both within the Correctional Institutions and out in the community, listening, praying, and supporting through building clear faith community bridges activated as soon as a Offender enters parole. This work continues to change the trajectory of dozens of parolee’s lives. Not only is there the radical reduction in recidivism through community reintegration, but parolees—sometimes for the first time in their lives—become productive and contributing members to their communities.

    This spring, upon the passing of one of our senior members, I was reminded of our volunteers’ invaluable contributions. Bob spent his career with Child and Family services, both as a social worker and in management. Upon retirement, he continued on from his career supporting the less fortunate to investing in men deemed by many as not having a hope of recovery or contribution. 

    Over my years with Better Life, I’ve had many conversations with Bob as he passionately—and sometimes, emotionally—spoke of the deep needs of “his” men and the support that they required to live new and better lives. I am constantly inspired at how our Better Life team members exemplify their faith in Jesus by sacrificially investing in ‘the least of these.’

    The focus of Better Life, in the absence of an active CSC FCRP contract, continues to be investing in the men and women of the CSC Pacific Region as they approach parole and helping provide the best support possible through their local community of faith for a healthy parole experience.

    In seeking to ensure a long and healthy future for Better Life Integration & Support, we have been deeply invested in writing applications and proposals to various foundations for supportive grants to help resource our work (one grant application actually took over 200 hours!), though we have not yet found a replacement funding source.

    We also continue to be involved with the Chaplaincy Wellness Program (CwP). This program addresses the impact of trauma and is currently offered quarterly at Mission Correctional Institution. We are conducting meetings with Kent Correctional Institution (maximum security) to begin offering the program there. I’ve been honoured to be invited by Better Life board member and psychotherapist Dr. Grace Lian-Bodenbach to provide a session during our next program cycle on The Brain and Trauma, exploring how each of us can understand and answer the questions: why do I think what I think, feel what I feel, and do what I do? Ultimately, who is the boss of me?

    Neurology gives us invaluable insights into how we are impacted by trauma, including “neuroplasticity” and the potential for each of us to create “new pathways” that allow us to think new thoughts, feel new feelings, and engage in different actions than the ones that we pursued in the past. A recording of my previous CwP Brain and Trauma session is on the Better Life website, if you’d like to listen to it, and I will be posting a revised session in the near future.

    Thank you for your support of Better Life. We ask for your prayers as continue to pursue long term funding to ensure the invaluable ministry of Better Life reaches far into the future.

    Gratefully, 

    Adam Wiggins

    Executive Director

    Better Life Integration & Support

  • The Brain, Trauma & Limiting Beliefs

    This presentation was first delivered at a Correctional Service Canada Offender Wellness Program.

    The content reflects Better Life Integration & Support’s discovery that addressing trauma (PTSD, large “T” Trauma) is an important element for Offenders to enter into a healthy community reintegration pathway and experience a new and better life.

    One of the constant responses I get, when I say I work in Federal Offender Community Reintegration, is the belief that offenders can not be rehabilitated.

    In complete alignment with the evidence-based research that continues to emerge, my personal experience with Better Life Integration & Support has been that this is a destructive myth. A myth inflamed by media headlines that amplify the horrors of recidivism (reoffending) and embed this belief in a single possible (inevitably negative!) outcome across Canadian society.

    In many cases, the issue isn’t that offenders can’t be rehabilitated. Rather, it’s that there has not been an intentional reintegration pathway back into the community for them.

    In other words, offenders often serve their time and are released into the community (usually into a halfway house and under the supervision of a parole officer), but without a community to welcome them, engage them in pro-social activity, and to continue to address the challenges that often led to their offence in the first place.

    This is where Better Life has had the opportunity to make a real difference in outcomes—connecting offenders to the life-changing difference church communities can have in supporting these women and men to experience a new and better life. Throughout the Pacific Region (BC and the Yukon), church communities that welcome and support parolees with intentional, faith based, reintegration practices are radically impacting the lives of parolees.

    While the reasons for criminal activity and recidivism are many, we recognize the widespread and deep impact of trauma on the human brain, and Better Life is stepping up our support in this area through a wellness program led by Chaplain Daniel Friesen and Psychotherapist Dr. Grace Lian. I also recorded this video and have presented at some of the most recent workshops.

    While research in this specific area continues to emerge, many women and men in Correctional Institutions suffered from significant trauma and PTSD (post-traumatic syndrome disorder). Again, while there are many reasons underlying why an individual commits a crime, the ‘early story’ of an offender is often horrific, including for some who were raised in communities of faith.

    In brief, what Better Life is discovering is that, as we address an individual’s trauma through trauma-informed psychotherapy—specifically, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)—we begin to give men and women an opportunity to live life free from being highjacked by the extreme and often overwhelming events and emotions of the past.

    This is just one “tool” among many needed for healing and successful reintegration, and we’re excited about adding it as an additional support for offenders in their journey. (With reference to our previously referenced reintegration pathway model, we currently offer this inside institutions prior to parole at the “on-ramp” stage.)

    Of course, trauma, to various degrees, is something that impacts all of us. If you’d like to understand the impact of trauma on the brain, why we think what we think, feel what we feel, and do what we do, please watch this video presentation of the material that we recently presented to the men at Mission Medium Correctional Institution.

    As always, we’re deeply grateful for your support. It is your financial and prayerful investment in Better Life that allows us to continue to have a life-changing and eternity-altering impact on the lives of many women and men.

    Donate

  • Better Life: Setting the prisoner free

    As many of you know, Better Life has held the Correctional Service Canada (CSC) Faith Community Reintegration Contract (FCRP) for a number of years. Much to Better Life’s surprise, a Florida-based corporation undercut the financial bid of the most recent contract (without providing support in all the designated regions…), and consequently gained a number of the FCRP contracts across Canada, including ours.

    While this came a quite a shock—particularly since Better Life has been recognized by CSC as a national leader in faith community reintegration best practices—after many conversations and much prayer, the Better Life team believes our future is as bright as ever.

    We recognize this as a moment to reaffirm our identity and sense of mission as an organization.

    From the very beginning, Better Life was shaped by what Christians call the gospel. The belief that our identity and very nature can be radically transformed by a Creator God who loves us so deeply He sacrificed Himself on our behalf. As the Gospel of John says so eloquently, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

    As Better Life, we believe that the gospel compels us to look at every human as being created in the image of God, and therefore, having dignity and worth—no matter who they are, no matter what they’ve done.

    I truly count it a privilege and an honour as Better Life’s executive director to have a front row seat to witness the actions of men and women who love and follow Jesus as they invest themselves in serving the ‘least of these.’

    silhouetted people walking across a suspension bridge against a forest backdrop

    Moving forward, while Better Life no longer holds the CSC FCRP, our team are able to continue to provide faith community reintegration support by meeting with men and women within the Correctional Institutions and assisting them into church communities that provide life-changing and eternity-altering support.

    We plan to continue to work closely with our wonderful network of church communities, Correctional Institution Chaplains, Institutional and Community Parole Officers, Halfway Homes, Substance Use Treatment Centres, and our friends through the community reintegration network.

    That said, up to this point, Better Life’s funding was largely through the CSC contract, which is no longer the case. While we have reduced our organizational costs as quickly and substantially as we can, the fact is there are still many financial commitments that Better Life needs to continue in order to to facilitate healthy reintegration support.

    For instance, some ongoing needs are our toll free number, that allows offenders and parolees to connect with their Better Life chaplain, our online presence that allows us to communicate the stories of transformation provided through church communities, and a reduced level of staffing retained to support the many actions that are need to connect men and women as they gain parole with a church community, and all the other services that are an essential part of a healthy reintegration experience.

    In the midst of so many good and worthy requests for your financial support, you may ask, “why should I give to Better Life?”

    Why?

    • Because this often overlooked ministry is a clear expression of Jesus’s ministry and mission. Jesus was clear that a commitment and investment in ‘the least of these’ (including those imprisoned—Matthew 25:39) is a clear expression of a genuine follower of Jesus (No, we don’t invest in the least of these to somehow earn God’s favour. But, as authentic followers of Jesus, our lives are invested in those who Jesus is committed to.)
    • Because supporting parolees through a church community of people who love and follow Jesus is both life-changing and eternity-altering. What Better Life has experienced over and over again is the transforming power of God through His people and church to give parolees a hope and a future.
    • Because supporting Parolees through church communities radically impacts our society for good. A former Correctional Service Canada (CSC) Regional Chaplain noted that recidivism (reoffending) drops by over 80% when parolees are reintegrated back into society through their church community.

    Can you imagine the impact that has on our society as a whole?! We constantly read headlines about our broken prison system, the terrible consequences of untreated substance use and mental health, not to mention horrible examples of reoffending.

    But what church community reintegration shows us is that when a man or woman with a criminal past is welcomed, supported, discipled, counselled, provided opportunities for employment and education, transformation is possible, and that individual can again become a contributing member of our Canadian society.

    In our next Better Life post, I want to share one of the amazing stories of transformation with you. But for now, for the reasons listed above, would you consider an investment into the ministry of Better Life as together we join Jesus in His mission of ‘setting the prisoner free.’

    Donate Now

    With thanks, on behalf of Better Life,

    Adam Wiggins

    Executive Director

  • Healthy Reintegration Part 1: Structure

    2023 has been a year of growth and development for Better Life Integration and Support as we continue to refine our process for providing a healthy reintegration experience for offenders and parolees who ask for faith community reintegration.

    While Better Life recognizes that each individual is unique (has a distinct story and experience), we also understand that healthy reintegration requires specific structure, system, and support.

    In fact, this past summer (2023), we developed a new set of Faith Community Reintegration videos for individuals and faith communities providing reintegration support to access online. These short videos are built around:

    1. Reintegration Structure
    2. Reintegration System
    3. Reintegration Support

    To access this free online training resource, please email adam.betterlife@gmail.com for the link and password.

    Over the next three blogs/newsletters, we’ll also look in more detail at the three components of healthy reintegration, as outlined above.

    We begin with having a clear understanding of Reintegration Structure.

    We picture Reintegration Structure as a Bridge. In fact, you’ll often hear us refer to the “Reintegration Bridge.”

    The Reintegration Bridge is composed of four parts:

    1. The Support holds the weight and stress of the bridge
    2. The Onramp is where the bridge is entered
    3. The main Body of the bridge
    4. The Offramp is the exit from the bridge

    1. The SUPPORT


    We all recognize how essential support is for a (structural) bridge. Comprehensive support is just as essential for Reintegration, and not just in the sense of providing support to the parolee, but also in giving a mentor or volunteer the capacity and strength to provide reintegration support.

    On one hand, providing reintegration support isn’t for the faint of heart. Every experience of providing support is unique, ranging from parolees that need intensive support, to those who require little support, but the experience can often be intense.

    At the same time, there is such an opportunity for mentors and volunteers of faith to experience life transformation, both in themselves and in the individual they are supporting.

    As you consider providing reintegration support, you can ask yourself the following questions:

    • How would you rate yourself in terms of your personal health, your emotional health, your relational health, your self-awareness?
    • How clear is your practice of personal boundaries? (If you’re unclear about the idea of boundaries, Drs. Cloud and Townsend wrote an excellent book on boundaries.)
    • Where do you get your support from?
    • How do your faith and faith practices provide you with clarity and strength when you are investing in others?

    Of course these aren’t questions solely for providing reintegration support, but healthy life principles for each of us.

    As you invest yourself in providing reintegration support, you need to be clear on where you gain your support to enable you to support another. As you enter into providing reintegration support, have a plan of what you are proactively doing so that you are and remain healthy.

    Identify the people you can go to if you are feeling challenged, or discouraged, or in need of direction. It may be a group of close friends, a spiritual leader, or mentor from your faith community. We encourage you to identify those people in your life that can support you and pray for you as you begin this journey.

    Without question, the experience of providing a parolee with reintegration support can be one of the greatest opportunities for you to grow in your own spiritual life.

    2. The ONRAMP

    The Onramp is well defined for Better Life. It illustrates what is normally a period of up to 12 months where support is offered to an offender in the Correctional Institution.

    An inmate contacts Better Life, either through a prison chaplain, through their Institutional Parole Officer, or personally through the Better Life toll free number.

    A Better Life staff member dedicated to that inmate’s specific prison meets with them and undertakes an intake interview.

    During the interview there are specific questions that we ask, but in general, we are seeking to understand an inmate’s motivation and the degree of interest they have in seeking reintegration support from a faith community.

    One of Better Life’s non-negotiables is the willingness of an inmate to provide full disclosure.

    We take a faith community’s trust very seriously, and therefore, view an inmate’s willingness to provide full disclosure an essential for their healthy reintegration experience and for the potential of their relationship with the faith community, mentors and volunteers.

    What’s significant for mentors and volunteers to understand is during that 12 month period, a Better Life staff member is working closely with the inmate to develop a relationship of trust with them, to understand their correctional management plan and team, and to begin building a connection with a potential faith community for when they achieve a positive parole hearing outcome.

    The relationship of trust between the inmate and the Better Life staff member is invaluable for the faith community to understand the needs of the inmate and the faith community’s potential to support them.

    3. The BODY of the Bridge

    Best practice in healthy reintegration is, as an inmate enters into parole, they are quickly connected with their supportive faith community. This connection may have already been established while the inmate was within the Correctional Institution.

    Better Life’s practice is that the week an individual enters parole, if not the day of, the parolee is introduced to a representative of their respective faith community.

    At times, the individual’s community parole officer may request to be included in this meeting.

    During the initial meeting the parolee will share their story. A Parolee’s willingness to share their story helps to ensure their safety and the safety of the faith community as well, and begins to create a healthy reintegration pathway.

    The initial meeting is also an opportunity for the faith community representative to talk about the ways a parolee can access the community and experience their support.

    While each of the four stages of the Reintegration Bridge are important, the contribution of Stage Three is invaluable. It is in and through the faith community that a parolee experiences:

    • The opportunity to experience trusted relationship(s)
    • Engagement in empowering faith practices
    • Support for the tangible needs that a parolee may have, including:
      • Employment
      • Housing
      • Education
      • Therapy, which may address areas of Trauma, Addiction and Mental Health

    4. The OFFRAMP

    The goal of reintegration is a healthy reintegration experience, with the ultimate outcome that a parolee becomes a contributing member of society.

    However, it’s important to recognize that healthy reintegration isn’t always linear.

    In other words, reintegration support doesn’t guarantee that the parolee will never again experience challenges with addiction, or mental health, certain temptations or unhealthy behaviours.

    A Parolee’s experiences along the reintegration pathway are always informing those that provide support with a clearer picture of what is going to help the parolee move forward in their reintegration.

    For instance, an offender enters parole and is provided with reintegration support by loving, wise caregivers. But the offender cannot overcome the temptations of their addiction, and by giving into their addiction, has parole revoked because they breached their conditions.

    It may be easy to believe that the caregivers failed to provide healthy reintegration support. However, instead of a sense of failure, such experiences are invaluable in helping provide a more holistic, comprehensive pathway for the parolee.

    The parolee’s challenges with addiction, or any challenges for that matter, alert us to the specifics of what the individual needs to move forward.

    For example:

    • For an individual that struggles with challenges with alcohol or drug addiction, the new plan will include the individual going into addiction treatment.
    • For those who are challenged by sexual addiction, the new plan will include becoming a member of a CoSA group that specifically provides structure and accountability for sexual addiction.
    • For those who are overwhelmed by trauma, or are challenged by other issues of mental health/illness, the new plan will include being under the care of a therapist, or a psychiatrist, if medication is required for treatment.

    The point is, we use the awareness that comes from the parolee’s experience to inform what a healthy reintegration pathway will look like for the individual.

    In conclusion, the support and development of trusted relationships that come from members of a parolee’s faith community are invaluable for their healthy reintegration.

    While a parolee’s reintegration may not always be linear, the development of trusted relationships with faith community caregivers can be life changing.

    In the next Better Life Newsletter we will look at the importance of having a clear REINTEGRATION SYSTEM.


    With thanks,

    Adam Wiggins

    Executive Director

  • Does faith community reintegration work for every offender?

    Recently a new friend asked me what I did for a living.

    I began to tell him about the vital work of community reintegration. His response? “Good luck with that!”

    Frankly, I wasn’t surprised—and perhaps you’ve had similar responses as well.

    Hardly a week goes by without national or provincial news about a high-profile offender who has reoffended. Such headlines persuade us there is no hope for a healthy reintegration experience.

    Thankfully, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

    While the work of reintegration can be very complex, in general, the high-profile cases that capture news headlines are more often than not a result of an offender leaving a correctional institution with no meaningful, comprehensive support.

    We know that healthy reintegration becomes possible when we can help offenders into the ‘relational resource centre’ of their church or faith community.

    When healthy relationships of trust are established and modelled, when accountability is nurtured, and when resources such as employment, therapy, addiction treatment and housing are made available, a parolee begins to gain one of the invaluable qualities of life: hope.

    And what we are discovering is, when a parolee does re-offend, the re-offence is typically less severe than previous offences. Further, that situation becomes an opportunity to focus our relationships and resources more closely on and around the specific challenges that parolee is wrestling with.

    Does faith community reintegration work for every offender?

    Full disclosure: yes . . . and no.

    Yes, because:

    Every dimension of support that ‘we’ (the Better Life Team and all the amazing churches and faith communities, mentors, and volunteers) can offer impacts a parolee’s life for the better, and often for eternity.

    Just this spring, LS entered parole. Because of the nature of his crime, he couldn’t go back to his former occupation. But LS was willing to begin again at the bottom. He recognized his need for the support of his church community.

    Recently, a Better Life Team member and I met with LS. He shared examples of his growing faith and his desire to serve in his church in the area God has gifted him (to give back).

    He spoke about Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality, an excellent book by Dr. Henry Cloud that LS’s Better Life reintegration partner had given him before he was released on parole, and how he is applying its principles in his life each day.

    He talked about how, while humbly being willing to ‘begin at the bottom,’ he was now being given the opportunity to provide site management and the promise of greater advancement in the future in his new field.

    The story of LS’s life is being written, or perhaps ‘rewritten,’ in such a redemptive way.

    Another recent example is CM.

    On the day of CM’s release, the Better Life reintegration partner, who had been supporting him while he was still inside, and I accompanied him to a church within a close distance from his halfway home.

    CM told the pastor his story and the pastor welcomed CM into his community and talked with him about the ways that he could experience meaningful relationships and support at the church. A pathway for healthy reintegration was created for CM to travel on.


    So, where does the ‘No’ come in? When doesn’t faith community reintegration work?

    Really, the only time faith community reintegration can’t ‘work’ is when there’s no church or faith community available to reintegrate the individual into.

    And that, in a nutshell, is the challenge.

    Our hope, our prayer, and our commitment as Better Life is to have trained, equipped and supported churches and faith communities throughout the Pacific Region that are ready to welcome and support a parolee through their community reintegration.

    We are continually meeting with and providing training for churches and faith communities, but we need so many more.

    And, certainly for Christians, our faith compels us directly from the words of Jesus to invest in the ‘least of these.’ (Matthew 25)

    On this Giving Tuesday*, I would like to ask you to consider responding in two ways:

    • First, are you a part of a church or faith community that Better Life could meet with and help train and resource as a welcoming and supportive community for healthy reintegration? Email adam.betterlife@gmail.com to start the conversation.
    • Second, will you consider being a financial supporter of Better Life through regular giving or a one-time gift?

    Your financial contribution will enable Better Life to continue to provide training, resourcing and support to church and faith communities so that their doors are opened and their mentors and volunteers are prepared to provide a life-changing experience for a parolee.

    With thanks,

    Adam Wiggins

    Executive Director

    *”GivingTuesday is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world. GivingTuesday was founded in 2013 in Canada by CanadaHelps.org, GIV3 and several other founding partners.”—from GivingTuesday.org

  • Metamorphosis: My path to transformation

    I am excited to present a book by a long-time friend Better Life staff have had the pleasure to know.

    Yves Réal Côté has written his experience of being a ‘lifer’ in Metamorphosis: My path to transformation in collaboration with Criminologist and friend Alana Abramson.

    Yves’s story is one of authenticity—the ongoing struggle to experience healthy reintegration, redemption, forgiveness, grace and love.

    You can find an overview of his story here:

    If you or your loved one has experienced the trauma of crime, or incarceration, or if you support offenders and parolees, I know you will be inspired by Yves’s story!

    Click here for more details or to purchase a copy!

  • Illustrating the Life-Transforming Power of Reintegration

    This past month, you may have come across this news headline:

    Sask. woman found frozen was released from correctional centre 3 days earlier

    It is such a tragic story. This young woman had family and community who cared for her, yet they were unaware of her release.

    This post isn’t to criticize Correctional Services Canada or any particular Correctional Institution. However, as I read this tragic story, it emphasized for me the incredible contribution community chaplaincy makes.

    When an offender is released, they can be walked to the door of the prison, given their belongings and a bus pass, and simply sent on their way, if they have no one waiting to escort them.

    Contrast this with the reality that the period following an offender’s release is the most critical in terms of re-offending (rate of recidivism).

    Offenders often express that the most stressful time they face isn’t necessarily inside a Corrections Institution. As bleak as it can be, there often develops a rhythm and a pattern to institutionalized life.

    What’s most stressful turns out to be the initial weeks and months after release.

    Federal Corrections, in particular, involves longer sentence terms, and the world an offender walks out into can seem like a whole new one. Offenders not only have to navigate the complexity of navigating their own finances, dramatically different technology, housing, employment, and relationships, but rejection waits for them at every turn.

    Thanks to Google and a deeply connected world of near-instant access to information, the details of their offence are readily available to potential employers, landlords, banks, and other connections.

    Rejection, fear, feelings of inadequacy and vulnerability, and this stream of logistical challenges—and potential reconnections with toxic relationships or environments—often push parolees right back into institutionalization.

    But what if we change that scenario?

    What if, on the day of release, instead of being shown the door, handed a bus ticket or being shipped to a halfway home, there’s a familiar face waiting for them at that door? And that someone—who already has been extending support during incarceration—drives them to their destination? And they engage in the continued conversation about what the parolee can expect, and where their people and places of support will be?

    What if the parolee is introduced to a community of faith that they identify with from (before) day one? And they have mentors and places of connection that can provide support as they navigate “a whole new world” full of new or dramatically altered technology, and the need for income and housing, positive relationships, and an environment that supports healthy spiritual practices?

    In fact, when we can provide the above ingredients in an individual’s reintegration it is, with no exaggeration, a game-changer—and a life-changer—for that individual.

    The most commonly shared statistic is that when parolees are reintegrated into their faith communities upon release, there is an over 70% drop in re-offending.

    That’s staggering, isn’t it? That’s good for the individual, the community, the mentors and volunteers (because we’re always learning a lot!), and frankly, the nation!

    I am so grateful for all of our churches, faith communities, Better Life community chaplains and volunteers, whose sacrificial investment makes such a life-changing difference for the men and women we serve. Thank you.

    If you’d like to find out more about how you can volunteer, or how your church can be involved in the work of reintegration, I would love to hear from you!

    With gratitude,

    Adam Wiggins, General Director

    adam.betterlife@gmail.com

  • Referrals & Reintegration Partners

    In FCRP Part 2, we mentioned that there can be other reintegration pathways better suited to the particular needs of an individual, and when anotherorganization can provide a better match of resources and support, we’re happy to make referrals. For example:

    Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA)

    CoSA is a unique and innovative community justice initiative for post release support and accountability of offenders in and by the community. CoSA VFV also provides public education programming on how to create safe communities for all.

    Better Life refers individuals to CoSA when they require support and accountability related to sexual crimes. Visit the CoSA Vancouver/Fraser Valley website for more details.

    Archdiocese of Vancouver Prison Ministry

    We care for all those that have been impacted by crime. We regularly visit our community’s correctional institutions, providing faith-based programs. We also engage our Catholic schools and parishes, promoting awareness about social teaching and restorative justice.

    Better Life refers individuals to Catholic Vancouver Prison Ministry who prefer a Catholic faith community or who can otherwise benefit from the strong support and resources they offer. Visit the Catholic Vancouver Prison Ministry website for more details.

  • New Years Gratitude

    We are excited to turn the page in 2021 and thankful for your support of the work we will be doing this new year! Support like yours allows our team the bandwidth to work at full capacity in this vital work of reintegration. We could not do this without people like you.

    Despite the restrictions of COVID, Better Life made significant steps ahead in 2020. We continued to facilitate and support men and women from Federal Corrections Institutes (9 in our Pacific Region), we developed our relationship with Corrections Canada (including Pacific Region Institutions, Parole Offices and Officers, and Halfway Homes), and significantly increased the network of churches that we are able to integrate offenders into.

    One of the areas we are most excited about for 2021 is the development of a training team. We are grateful for a number of individuals who bring wisdom and experience to developing Better Life training for the churches and volunteers we work with. This training will be a valuable resource as we continue to reduce recidivism and help parolees to begin to experience a new story and to live a better life.

    J.’s message (below) is a fantastic reminder of just how powerful that work can be!

    Hello,

    My name is J., I was housed at William Head Institution for over two years and can say without a doubt that a big difference from any other institution is the volunteers. All of them, from all the groups to the ones who come in for chapel.

    Many of the chapel volunteers have been there for years and have probably seen a few chaplains come and go. This gives us not only a continuation of support building to our release but a great help after it. I’ve been blessed for all the connections that I’ve been able to keep going after I got out, even despite covid.

    Many Christians who come out of prison are either fooling themselves or don’t know where to turn to in a new city. The volunteers can be a great help to both as they continue to minister a safe circle of support and a good dose of a reality check.

    It was one of the volunteers who connected me to the church I go to now who I’ve really connected with their pastor who did time in prison some 25+ years ago! The Lord has blessed me so much inside and outside of prison. I’ve grown in my walk with Jesus and others. I’ve helped with playing music in the chapel and now at church.

    “I was in prison, and you came unto me.” (Matt. 25:36)

    In Christ’s love and prayer,

    J.

    Thanks again for your support of the vital work of Better Life.

    We appreciate you!

    Adam Wiggins

    General Director

  • JT’s Story on Video

    JT’s story shows why the work of Reintegration is so valuable and transformative!

    Click below to watch him tell his powerful story in his own words at his home church:

    Note: captions are available via the [cc] symbol on the bottom right!

    If you have any questions about volunteering and how to get involved in providing support for an individual like JT’s reintegration, please don’t hesitate to contact our General Director, Adam Wiggins, at adam.betterlife@gmail.com.