Townsand Price-Spratlen – författare

One in every 31 U.S. adults is in the penal system. This mass incarceration is by far the largest in the world. African Americans are disproportionately imprisoned and challenged by the consequences of incarceration in education, jobs, voting, and other aspects of life. Since 96 percent of those imprisoned are released, there is an urgent need for resources and research that can improve reentry outcomes. Reconstructing Rage analyzes how – and how well – one company, Reconstruction, Inc. of Philadelphia, has organized returning prisoners, their families, and communities for 24 years. It looks at Reconstruction’s programs, strategies, and patterns of change over time; holistic (i.e., mind-body-spirit) and principled transformations in the people and families it has touched; and at the company’s collaborations and contributions to criminal justice and public policy best practices. Reconstructing Rage explores challenges of improving community capacity and quality of life outcomes within and beyond reentry and reintegration, for former felons, their families, and a growing number of others interested in a broader social justice.

One in every 31 U.S. adults is in the penal system. This mass incarceration is by far the largest in the world. African Americans are disproportionately imprisoned and challenged by the consequences of incarceration in education, jobs, voting, and other aspects of life. Since 96 percent of those imprisoned are released, there is an urgent need for resources and research that can improve reentry outcomes. Reconstructing Rage analyzes how – and how well – one company, Reconstruction, Inc. of Philadelphia, has organized returning prisoners, their families, and communities for 24 years. It looks at Reconstruction’s programs, strategies, and patterns of change over time; holistic (i.e., mind-body-spirit) and principled transformations in the people and families it has touched; and at the company’s collaborations and contributions to criminal justice and public policy best practices. Reconstructing Rage explores challenges of improving community capacity and quality of life outcomes within and beyond reentry and reintegration, for former felons, their families, and a growing number of others interested in a broader social justice.

How are predominantly African American churches meeting the needs of young people? What resources of, and tensions in, faith leadership are shaping answers to this and other related questions? Nurturing Sanctuary analyzes ways in which the two most vital institutions of the Black experience – families and churches – are working with schools and health providers to respond to contemporary challenges and improve the twenty-first century life chances of African Americans and others. Data were generated from a four-year collaboration of eighteen churches, public health professionals, service learning students, and an interdisciplinary team of researchers. Eighty parents and pastors, and over 400 teenagers in a large, Midwestern city specified strategies of action in their daily lives and how they use them to respond, more and less successfully, to their many life challenges. Nurturing Sanctuary explores three capacity-building themes that emerged and critiques diverse Sacred and secular resources being developed and used. Finally, it specifies innovative best practices that are enriching faith-health relationships among religiously active persons, and all others with whom they interact within and beyond sanctuary walls.

How are predominantly African American churches meeting the needs of young people? What resources of, and tensions in, faith leadership are shaping answers to this and other related questions? Nurturing Sanctuary analyzes ways in which the two most vital institutions of the Black experience – families and churches – are working with schools and health providers to respond to contemporary challenges and improve the twenty-first century life chances of African Americans and others. Data were generated from a four-year collaboration of eighteen churches, public health professionals, service learning students, and an interdisciplinary team of researchers. Eighty parents and pastors, and over 400 teenagers in a large, Midwestern city specified strategies of action in their daily lives and how they use them to respond, more and less successfully, to their many life challenges. Nurturing Sanctuary explores three capacity-building themes that emerged and critiques diverse Sacred and secular resources being developed and used. Finally, it specifies innovative best practices that are enriching faith-health relationships among religiously active persons, and all others with whom they interact within and beyond sanctuary walls.

Analyzes the tensions and triumphs of a unique, faith-based, addiction recovery organization in a high poverty neighborhood.We live in an era of substance misuse colliding with public health shortcomings. Consequences of mass incarceration and other racial disparities of the "drug war" are felt acutely in the neighborhoods and communities least equipped to deal with them. More than 600,000 people are released from US prisons each year; nearly two-thirds of returning citizens have a substance use disorder (SUD) and have limited access to treatment. Even among the general public, only one in ten people with SUD receive any type of specialty treatment. Community organizations make important contributions to improve access and help to heal these societal fractures. Using a social ecology of resilience model, Addiction Recovery and Resilience is a yearslong ethnographic case study of a faith-based health organization with a focus on long-term recovery. It explores the organization's triumphs and missteps as it has worked to respond to the opioid crisis and improve the health of affiliates and the neighborhood for nearly twenty years. Addiction Recovery and Resilience concludes with best practices for individual, organizational, and community health and public policy at a time when nontraditional health care providers are increasingly important.