I received my undergraduate degree in sociology from Drake University on Mother’s Day 2000 and my Master of Science in Education, Certified Rehabilitation Counseling degree from Drake University on May 16, 2009. Forty years almost to the day of being released from prison on May 22, 1969. I was the first woman allowed to participate in Iowa's work-release program in the 1960s, gained my freedom in 1969, restoration of citizenship in 1974 and an executive pardon in 1982.
With the declining economy, Iowa’s governor first cut Iowa Department of Corrections staff by 770 in October, then an across the state 10% cut with more cuts promised in the next budget. I took on-line grant writing and nonprofit classes last year after I received my graduate degree from Drake University and attended an eight week class about starting a company. I put together the Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws for Assessing Disability Barriers (ADB), found four wonderful people who wanted to be on the Board of Directors and filed the nonprofit status with the Iowa Secretary of State on February 4, 2010. ADB clients are women in corrections with disabilities.
Assessing Disability Barriers evaluates the client’s external and internalized barriers to a successful re-entry, helps clients write their Plan to Achieve Self-Support; helps clients reframe their world view to be consistent with the laws and rules of society, provides alternatives to immediate gratification thinking and behaviors; and provides referrals for their personal, disability (task modifications, assistive technologies and/or worksite accommodations; personal assistance; hardscape and environmental conditions), chemical dependency, financial, academic, employment, social, and family needs.
Using my own experience from a holistic perspective, I identity many aspects that may be missed by other counselors, especially the internalized barriers caused by incarceration. This includes person-centered, social-cognitive-behavioral therapy with a focus on the interdependence of race, socioeconomic status, current political and social stance about offenders, and the client’s coping mechanisms, skills sets and interests.
Housing, transportation, food and clothing are all necessary, but if the person’s disability symptoms negate positive job seeking and retention, they will not be successful.
Bonnie
I published my autobiographical novel, Proclivity, in 2007 to help girls & women who were abused as children, especially by incest. Readers tell me that either they cannot put it down or they must lay it aside to grieve for me and them, but they always have tears in their eyes when they thank me for writing it because they were able to heal from things they never wanted to look at. I am now using my forty years experience in reentry to write The Steel Ceiling and give hope to those who identify with me.
Followers
Blog Archive
About Me
- Bonnie L. Kern, MS CRC
- I received a seven-year sentence for bouncing a check in 1963. I did not notice when the money ran out of my checking account while drinking after my daughter and mother were killed in a car accident. I was the first woman allowed to participate in the Iowa work-release program in the 1960s, gained my freedom in 1969, restoration of citizenship in 1974 and an executive pardon in 1982. I started my education in my 40s with a general-equivalency degree. I thought that if I just got enough education, I could tell the right people, in the right way, so they would help past victims - the girls and women who were abused, especially by incest, as children and ended up in the mental health and criminal justice systems as I did. I have been afforded opportunities that others are denied, and responsibility comes with those liberties. Dr. Dean Wright taught me that I have to do the things that make sense to me, even when no one else understands. He taught me that I was, with enough education, in the position to be a communication conduit between the corrections department and the prisoners.
0 comments:
Post a Comment