Our Programs ~

This change of heart can be a key

element in an individual’s life path. 

It enables someone to begin taking 

responsibility for his or her own 

behavior and supports them in learning 

how to cope with confusing emotions.

APO combines elements of service and individual empowerment in its approach, thereby addressing the acute problem of re-entry into society and successful re-integration within the local social fabric. Our office has the goal of making each communication as individual as possible. Each participant in our program is cared for with warmth, compassion and good will.

Anthroposophical Prison Outreach supports incarcerated individuals inner development and self-rehabilitation by offering:
 

• Program Packets: Anthroposophy, as developed by Rudolf Steiner, offers new approaches to the understanding life’s riddles as well as a path of meditation and development which can be followed even behind bars. This initial packet includes: Self-Development in the Penitentiary by Fred Janney, Facing Karma and Practical Training in Thought by Rudolf Steiner, Introduction to Meditation by Eileen Bristol, a description of the EduCareDo correspondence program and a copy of our library rules and list of books.
• Mail order Lending Library: of spiritual and consciousness raising books. If the prisoner wishes to explore further, he or she can borrow books by Rudolf Steiner and related authors from our lending library. APO pays postage both to and from a prisoner’s facility. We do this by providing a postage paid return label.
• Mentorship Correspondence Program: Once a prisoner has begun borrowing books from the library or has enrolled in the EduCareDo correspondence course, we assign them to a volunteer mentor. As anyone who has done any teaching or mentoring knows, this provides a growth experience for the mentor as well. All mail flows through our Ann Arbor office and the mentor’s home address is not provided to the inmate. Mentors are crucial for mutual support of the program and our book-borrowing inmates, while sustaining them on their individual spiritual journey.
• Self-Awakening Correspondence Course: This 26 lesson course is offered in collaboration with EduCareDo, an Australia based distance learning program developed by Erwin Berney. It provides a coordinated, easy to understand journey into anthroposophy. Participants find it extremely helpful as a basis for understanding many of the ideas presented by Rudolf Steiner. Lessons include: The Three Soul-Forces, The Twelve Senses and their Development, The Three and Four Fold Human Being, Destiny and Biographies, Cosmology, Introduction to Painting, Speech, and Eurythmy, to name a few. A mentor participates with the prisoner in the lessons. All mail back and forth flows through the APO office.
• Illuminating Anthroposophy Newsletter: The goal of our twice yearly newsletter is to foster community and provide practical support for a life that includes study and meditation. Contributors to the newsletter include prisoners as well as others who share out of their years of working with Steiner’s teachings. It provides a space for sharing questions and experiences, creating a flow of communication within this unique community of students of anthroposophy who are incarcerated. Additionally, it informs friends and supporters of the program.