whewnow.org

One Step at a Time

There are few, if any, programs in the Sunnyside and Third Ward areas in Harris County that
address these converging issues. WHEW’s target objectives are to service these women and to
support them in not returning to prison, abusive relationships, and homelessness. WHEW seeks
to address key problems such as employment, job skills and training, and other essential needs for
this disenfranchised clientele. Moreover, WHEW seeks to meet the needs of clients who appear
to be undesired by other institutions. In addition, WHEW empowers women globally by creating
employment and projects that are beneficial to their communities of origin.

Helping The Community

Phase I of WHEW’s development includes the following current and future

domestic programs and services:

• Connect-the-Dots Workshop– To provide interactive media and cultural literacy

seminars and workshops on the local/global relationship between prison and Hip-Hop

culture. Since 2001, these workshops have been conducted in state prisons and jails in Wallkill, New York and Houston, Texas.

• Workshops showcase not only the negative

aspects of the two cultures’ relationships, but also the negative impact that symbiosis

has on African-American women, men, and families, resulting in domestic violence

problems that persist before, during, and after becoming part of the criminal justice

system.

• Employment Assistance–To provide referrals and job placement.

• Job Skills and Training–To teach women about computer data entry, website design and maintenance, inventory and distribution of goods, fashion design and accessory items, cosmetology, and culinary arts.

• Counseling–To provide HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention workshops, substance

abuse awareness and prevention workshops, and artistic and cultural therapy via creative writing indigenous African and Native American dance forms, and Native American folklore so that individuals and families can explore an arts-based approach to building self-esteem and thereby reduce the number of women returning to prison.

Reinforcing our Commitment

• Financial Literacy–To implement mandatory workshops to help clients raise their

standard of living by setting up IDA accounts to build assets, providing mandatory

literacy instruction, and emphasizing money management skills, including future

financial planning and training for their specific asset goals.

• Youth Choice–To instruct children of formerly incarcerated parents, who live in

transitional housing and domestic violence centers, about career and lifestyle options that can end the cycle of abuse and incarceration.

• Seeds Planting Seeds–This program educates youth about nutrition, preservation of

the ecosystem, and ways to combat hunger. Children of formerly incarcerated parents,

youth who were formerly (juvenile) incarcerated, and other young people from the

community will be the primary participants in the program.

• Housing Assistance–To provide referrals, rental assistance, and home-buyer education.

• Health Care–To provide referrals, holistic nutritional education, preventative/alternative  methods of promoting wellness, and information about reproductive justice.