Why we go inside
We spend time with men in correctional facilities including San Quentin and Soledad, women at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), and young people at youth camps. We start by listening. We talk honestly about anger, grief, regret, and faith. We make room for people to ask what they want to do differently and what they can start practicing today.
Taking responsibility for harm and believing your life still has purpose can go together. That belief is at the heart of Powerful Days Prison Ministry.
With the women at Central California Women’s Facility
At Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), our work includes The Echo Within™, a conversation about the beliefs people carry from painful experiences. A belief like “I have to protect myself” can make sense in a moment of danger. Years later, it can still shape how someone responds when they feel challenged or hurt.
We make time to ask where those beliefs came from, how they show up now, and what a different response could look like. The women can take those questions with them and use them in the choices they face every day.
With the men we serve
In one of those visits, at San Quentin’s Chapel B, I shared what it took to face my own anger. Through The Science of Forgiveness, we talked about taking responsibility for the past and learning to forgive yourself. We introduced journaling as a way to put difficult feelings into words and think through what to do with them.
One man told San Quentin News he’d long understood forgiveness through his faith. The workshop helped him see that he needed to extend it to himself, too. Read the workshop coverage.
With young people at youth camps
We show up to hear what young people are dealing with and make space for them to talk about who they want to become. We want them to leave with something they can use the next time they face a hard choice.
Help us keep showing up
Your Powerful Days Tee Club membership helps cover the costs of getting to these facilities, preparing for the workshops, and bringing materials people can use during the session and return to afterward.
Our first shirt says Purpose Still Calls. It carries the message we bring inside: there is still good you can do with the life ahead of you.
Join the Powerful Days Tee Club
— Charles Myles II, Founder