Community Healing Through Shared Stories.

POPS the Club transforms shame and stigma into hope and healing for teens who are struggling with the Pain of the Prison System. In weekly club meetings, young people with loved ones in prison, jail and detention discover they are not alone. Most students who attend POPS the Club meetings have dealt, or are dealing with, the incarceration of a parent, sibling, other family member, or a friend. Some have themselves experienced incarceration.

In the safe space that is a POPS club meeting, members create community, share their stories, and heal. We share a provided meal, make art, write, engage in mindfulness exercises, learn from guest speakers, and publish and perform our stories and poems.

The POPS curriculum focuses on self-expression (writing, drawing, photography, performance); self-healing (mindfulness); and community engagement (sharing questions and concerns, listening to speakers, speaking to middle schoolers, forums and others). POPS stories and poems are published in an annual award-winning anthology and regularly published on The Good Men Project .