“The head female chaplain was saying all these church services are wonderful, but what these women really need is a class that will teach them how to get a job when they get out of here,” Callan said.
Callan was inspired to found WINGS Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit in the Spring area that offers 8-week programs teaching work and life skills to incarcerated women and women recovering from addiction and abuse. Since its inception in 2012, the organization has grown and now has 16 volunteers.
WINGS Ministries first launched at Harris County Jail, but when the jail stopped permitting group classes in 2015 the program spread to other prisons and recovery centers, such as Santa Maria Women Helping Ourselves in Houston, a treatment alternative to incarceration, Callan said.
Courses begin with changing the mindset of the women, Executive Director Kathy Wortham said. The program then introduces practical skills, such as resume writing, interviewing and proper etiquette, before progressing to budgeting. There is also a lesson on how to avoid human trafficking.
Callan said she received an email from Santa Maria in October that said since 2016—when it joined WINGS Ministries—only one woman had gone back to jail after completing the program. The state average of reincarceration within five years after release is above 60 percent, she said.
“[The women] come into the classroom with one mindset, and then by the time they get to the end of the eight weeks, it’s just amazing to see how they’ve opened up,” Wortham said.
WINGS Ministries
14511 Falling Creek Drive, Ste. 301, Houston
281-415-0750
www.wingstofreedom.net
