March 2020

Dear Friends,

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. That’s how we feel most of the time. But some of us are weathering this storm behind locked gates. I fear for the marginalized and invisible communities among us. You may know, DOC has suspended all visitors (that means family), volunteers, and attorneys during this health crisis. They are hoping to reduce the possibility of transmission. Prisons are not set up for social distancing or handling a pandemic.

OHOM’s initial response was to ensure that our Program Directors could still send messages to our classes. It feels like sending messages in a bottle, but our DOC Supervisors are assisting us in this. We then launched a Pen Pal Campaign to facilitate connection and let our incarcerated community know they are not forsaken.

It’s our CONNECTION to each other.

And it’s our CONNECTION to each other that gets us through strange times as these. It’s telling our stories through art, language, dance, music and theatre that allows us to see ourselves clearly, helps us cope and find meaning. It’s providing guidance, motivation, emotional support through mentoring and education.As for OHOM, we will resume classes as soon as we are allowed. We are still on track to announce our Strategic Plan this Fall. We will put out a big call for Volunteers at that time.

For more information about the handling of this crisis, check out Oregon DOC and Oregon Justice Resource Council links.

• https://www.oregon.gov/doc/covid19/Pages/default.aspx
• https://ojrc.info/covid19

Yours truly. Stay well.
Love Is All.
Carla Grant