This presentation explores how communities and community sector organizations in Kenya can better provide support to formerly incarcerated individuals with regards to re-entry. Community sector organizations can regularly visit the prisons and detention centers to give psychological support as well as other relevant life skills to empower those leaving prison with adequate skills sets useful in their re-entry and reintegration back in the society.
Also, the community organizations can raise awareness about the challenges faced by those returning from prison, which can shape the direction for local policies formulation. The families can be supported and encouraged to comprehend and accept their loved ones after their release from incarceration. Each case can be treated uniquely by assessing individual needs like housing, substance abuse treatment and family issues, before the reunion. In order for those returning to the community after an experience with the justice system to live a dignified, self-reliant lifestyle, community organizations can collaborate with businesses that offer tailor-made job training and placement services within particular communities. This will allow the formerly incarcerated individuals to meet in safe, peer-led spaces where they will gain psycho-social support and trauma-healing. This provides the groundwork for reconciliation, mental wellness and goal setting on their part. The community sector organizations can help them break away from limiting beliefs and old habits thereby creating new pathways and beliefs that can empower them to unleash their full potential, ultimately enabling them to fully blend back into the community and productively contribute to the overall community development.
Presenters
Peter Onyango Olwal was born on 5th January 1974 in Homa Bay, Kenya. He completed his secondary education in 1991 and embarked on a job-hunting from 1992. He secured a temporary job in the hotel industry. He later trained as a photographer and ventured into commercial photography. In 2005, he trained in conflict resolution through a restorative justice program known as the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). He later became a facilitator of this program in the informal settlements, schools, colleges and universities. He teamed up with other facilitators to introduce the AVP program into the Kenyan prisons in 2007 with the objective of empowering the incarcerated individuals to manage the difficult situations in the prisons using alternative approaches rather than violence.. Peter has represented Kenya in international many gatherings and conferences of the Alternatives to Violence Project in Rwanda, Nepal, Uganda, In 2019, he participated in a side event at the UN Headquarters, New York where he presented on the impact of his work on the lives of the incarcerated individuals in Africa. He has helped introduce the AVP program in Ethiopia and Somalia. He is a trained mediator and a dialogue facilitator.
He is a member of the following organizations:
1. Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation;
2. International Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants;
3. Alternatives to Violence Project International;
4. Pan Africa Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants;
5. Pan Africa Center for Understanding and Restorative Engagement.
