Support Group Format

"This is the (name of city) prison families support group. We meet weekly to support each other, exchange information, build a community and walk this road together (change this as you wish—these are suggestions)."

Group rules

• Meetings are free.
• Meetings are confidential—we request that whatever is said here, stays here—but we cannot insure this, so you might want to speak about something very sensitive after the meeting.
• No “woulda-coulda-shoulda”
• No judging each other—everyone else does that to us so we do not do it here.

The facilitator makes sure that the group’s attention stays on the person who needs it. We listen, give eye contact, ask questions and make comments but do not tell anyone what to do. With enough information and support, each of us can figure it out for ourselves.

“Please share your name and a sentence about what brought you here tonight.”

“Good news—as prison families, much of our news is bad. that makes what is good even more precious. Sometimes good news feels good and is easy to share. Sometimes it feels like nothing is good, but you have to give yourself credit for making it through the day or coming to this meeting. So share some good news and answer the question “what does that say about you?” ... what positive thing about you does your good news reflect? If this is hard for you, we will help.”

“Does anyone want to take some group time to talk about anything? It does not have to be about prison.” (If not, toss out a suggestion: coping with the holidays, anger, grief, missing loved ones. dealing with elderly parents, or children, etc—or ask if anyone has a topic) or ask each attendee to take 5 or 10 minutes to talk about anything they want, update the group on their week, etc.

About 10 minutes before group ends: “please share a goal, something you need to accomplish or want to do for yourself - something that is doable in the next week. if your goal is “be happy”, what is something you can do toward getting there.”

“Let’s share a moment of silence. If you would like to speak the name of a loved one who is not with us, please do”. (some groups like speaking names, some don’t so much—you can decide what works for your group)

Optional ending - a standing or sitting ovation - “since no one else cheers for us, let’s do it for ourselves.”

Announcements, make sure phone calls for support will be exchanged in between meetings, for those who are facing tough issues.

“Thank you all for coming.”