Your gift supports our 2023 healing and transformation work.
Letter from the Executive Director
2022 was yet another year in which storms of violence, both physical and systemic, plagued our world. These are radical times in need of radical love. I feel deeply grateful to be part of the loving, healing community of GRIP and especially for your ongoing commitment to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people who are often neglected and forgotten by society.
Facing difficult situations and emotions, known as “Sitting in the Fire,” helps us heal from old wounds, and create space for love, empathy, and compassion for ourselves and others. This is what we do in GRIP: remind ourselves and
those still serving time in prison that through Sitting in the Fire together, we can all cultivate a deeper understanding and love for our fellow human beings.
GRIP is a solution to violence. Between 2012-2022, over 650 GRIP graduates were released from prison, with more than 100 coming home in 2022. Their recidivism rate is less than 1%. We also know numbers don’t tell the whole story. In this report, we share with you what’s possible when we invest in people learning to heal and take responsibility for the harms they have caused.
GRIP graduates don’t only transform themselves;
they contribute to transforming prisons
and the communities to which they return.
We are proud that our graduates have become Peacemakers and leaders of GRIP and other programs inside prisons, as well as mentors and advocates in communities across California. They have learned to respond skillfully to difficult circumstances and painful emotions, becoming agents of change in their own lives and the lives of others.
Also, I am proud to report here the exciting new initiatives that began to come into fruition in 2022 – including our
Women’s Initiative, Veterans initiative, and deepening relationships with survivors of violence.
We could not have come this far without your generosity and support for promoting healing and restorative justice. Thank you for joining us on this shared path of liberation.
With love,
Kim Grose Moore
Executive Director
