Working with Stigma

People coming out of jail and prison face a variety of challenges, from unstable housing to acute anxiety about making choices.

Scroll down to read Gerard's latest Dispatch from the Journey Home.

The Compost Cooperative is a grassroots effort to build local economic infrastructure and reduce the likelihood that people will go back to jail. In our next newsletter we'll be sharing some exciting updates about our first institutional and commercial customers.

As we build this business to pick up food scraps in Greenfield, MA, we find how important it is to talk with potential customers about the realities of life for returning citizens who face various forms of legal discrimination. We're always looking for accessible materials about stigma, transformative justice, healing, compost--everything it takes to rebuild lives and the soil.

Please send us your ideas!

In the short video below, Nicholas Crapser talks about stigma
in a blunt, effective way:

"What if the worst thing you'd ever done was printed on your t-shirt?
What would your t-shirt say?"

Check out this video about reentry

Dispatches from the Journey Home, Part 2: Paper or Plastic?
by Gerard

Since getting out of jail I’ve found what are ordinary daily tasks for most folks, including myself at one point, can be overwhelming. Regaining free choice is something you look forward to the most in the joint, but once you get it, it's hard to figure out what to do with it.
For years I ordered “groceries” on a touchscreen kiosk that gave me few options and a very low spending limit no matter how much money I had in my account. I received my order a week later. That was the extent of my shopping experience.
Maybe that's why what would be considered a normal trip to Big Y for most people is nothing less than chaotic for me. I can never figure out what I want, or where to find it. There are so many choices! Is it really necessary to have an entire aisle dedicated to cereal? I have yet to purchase a single spice other than salt and pepper because I have no

clue what half that stuff is or what it’s good with anymore.
The problem with shopping doesn’t end at the choices. The foreign hustle and daily grind of “normal” life just seem so fast paced. People are everywhere and moving with intent, but in no predictable pattern. Kids are running around and begging their parents for sweet treats. There is the occasional shopping-cart traffic jam, and the random cashier who doesn’t know you but wants to be kind anyway.
Being stagnant for so long in a world of concrete and steel, dull colors, and restricted privileges sometimes makes the feat of shopping post-incarceration almost impossible. A lot of times I walk around aimlessly and leave before making a single selection. I always come back with hopes that it will get easier, and it does. I'm slowly letting color back into my life--and even bringing my own reusable shopping bags!

Tell your friends about this project

It's not just about the soil!
Connect with us (or unsubscribe) at:
thecompostcooperative@gmail.com
www.thecompostcooperative.com

Copyright © 2017 by The Compost Cooperative, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is: PO Box 792, Greenfield, MA 01302

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

This email was sent to <<Email Address>>
why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
The Compost Cooperative · 16 Federal Street · Greenfield, MA 01301 · USA