https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OleuYxkK1J0 On June 10, 2020, Truth Be Told community gathered together virtually for an evening of poetry and essays by women behind and beyond the prison wall. In early March, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) suspended all visitation and programming inside prisons due to COVID-19. The day before the state department made its […]
2020
Exploring Creativity
Truth Be Told brings in volunteers to lead Exploring Creativity Workshops for incarcerated women. Leaders vary from storytellers to singers to visual artists to dancers to drummers – to quilters and yoga teachers and writers.
Let’s Get Real
This 14-week program was created in 2002, because of a request from an Asst. Warden at the Lockhart Unit. She witnessed the phenomenon that is called “short timing:” It is common that when people are on their way out of prison they began to show reactionary behaviors, that are often self-destructive, to the reality of […]
Talk To Me
We facilitate this series in two different curriculum formats in two different prisons and we find that they both work very well. This 16-week series consists of three classes, with a goal of 15 new members, and 1-2 mentors, each semester. We hold two semesters per calendar year. We offer three modalities that students can […]
Pay It Forward
Pay It Forward is a peer-led monthly program at the Lane Murray Unit, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice maximum security unit in Gatesville, Texas. Pay It Forward provides an ongoing support group for alumni of Truth Be Told’s (TBT) Talk to Me (TTM) programs. In 2016, participants who committed to a year-long series (Talk […]
Healing Trauma
Developed by Dr. Stephanie S Covington and Eileen M Russo, this 6-week program is a short intervention that focuses on identifying trauma, power & abuse, and teaching grounding techniques. In 2021, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we launched Healing Trauma Virtual, which brings this curriculum to students from a distance.
Beyond Bars
When former class members leave prison, Truth Be Told encourages the women to stay involved and join our Beyond Bars peer-led programs. When they contact us, we hold their first “participant check-in.” This is a time for us to ask them about how they are doing and to reengage the tools they have been introduced […]