Prison Support Groups start the process

 Cephas has helped individuals to foster self-worth and embrace the worth of others. Cephas programs are group focused. The group facilitates open dialogue between all present abut the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that are responsible for difficult life situations. Often critical factors are denied or undiscovered for years, until they are brought to light in a Cephas group session.

Participating Correctional Facilities:

Albion, Attica, Collins, Gowanda, Groveland, Orleans, Wyoming. Peaceprints™ serves as many as 200 inmates weekly through the Cephas Prison Support Groups.

Catherine's Story:
There is a hymn that I heard for the first time during my days at Albion, which reminds me often of what Cephas meant to me during that often dark and lonely time. "Lord prepare me to be a sancturary." Every Monday evening Cephas meetings were my sanctuary, a place where I could share my thoughts and concerns and even some joys. To paraphrase a guiding principle of another well known support group, a criteria for membership in Cephas was a desire to share, to listen, to change and to grow.

Cephas provided that opportunity and allowed me to meet other women who genuinely cared about me and I cared about them. Our stories were unique, our struggles all too common. I missed my family and friends. I regretted what I had done that brought me to Albion. But every Monday, without fail, I knew that we could come together and share our commonalities and unload some of the burdens we were carrying. More often than not, we could give each other sound advice and mustual support. There were very few problems that one of us had not already experienced. Life does not stop when you are in prison, even though it often seems as if the world is getting along fine without your presence. We still had issues that we needed to share with someone and Cephas provided that outlet.

Cephas was a gift to me for more than two years of my life at Albion. I forged friendships there that I know will last for years to come. Our gatherings weren't all anguish and tears; much needed laughter would emerge on many occasions. For two hours every week I felt as if I was a real person. Cephas was my sanctuary, my haven in troubled times and in a troubling place. Cephas was a gift for which I will always be grateful.