IFI News
Prison Inmate Tames Anger Through Forgiveness
Editor’s Note: This unsolicited article was written by an inmate in the Columbia Correctional Institution at Portage, Wisconsin, and first appeared in the Institution’s September inmate newsletter. It is reprinted verbatim.
September 2016 – This is my fourth incarceration and will be my last because of the life sentence I am now serving. During this time I have been in many groups, programs, counseling sessions, ad nauseum and was never able to understand why I kept hurting people.
At Columbia Correctional Institution I was assigned a psychologist who suggested I participate in a group based on the book Forgiveness Is a Choice: A Step-by-Step Process for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope by Dr. Robert Enright of UW-Madison’s Psychology Department. I made the best decision of my life when I accepted the challenge.
This was the only program that ever asked me, “What happened to you to make you the way you are?” Everyone in the group had stories to tell about how they had been used, abused, and/or misused by those they trusted and/or looked up to. We began the process as a group of individuals mostly afraid to tell our stories or let others in. As we plodded through the first weeks some wanted to give up, some felt their stories too bad, and some just didn’t trust enough to share.
As we progressed and our stories came out, we were exposed to people we never truly knew – in my case, people I most likely would never have associated with. We became close like a family and knew the group was a safe place to deal with the anger and resentment that had plagued some of us over fifty years.
“This is the best program I have ever been associated with. . .”
We could talk about those who wronged us and altered our lives, and we could begin to forgive them and release our anger.
This is the best program I have ever been associated with and would recommend the book or program to anyone. If it’s not available in your institution, talk to you psychologists or chaplains about calling CCI for more information. You can also contact Dr. Enright at the following address: Dr. Robert Enright, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dept. of Psychology, 1025 W. Johnson St., Madison, WI 3706.
New Manual for School Counselors — An Introduction to Forgiveness for Adolescents
A new forgiveness intervention manual for at-risk middle school and high school students is now available from the International Forgiveness Institute (IFI)—at no cost.
Forgiveness Over Revenge: Grief, Insight and Virtue through Education (F.O.R.G.I.V.E.) is a training manual intended to serve as an introduction to the topic of forgiveness, both for school counselors and adolescents. The manual is not meant to serve as a diagnostic or therapeutic tool. Instead, it may be used to introduce the topic of forgiveness and to provide hands-on experience practicing forgiveness-related thought processes and exercises.
Counselors who opt to use the F.O.R.G.I.V.E. manual are provided with ten lessons, each approximately one hour in length. In the first five, students learn the basics of forgiveness, both what it is and what it is not. The remaining five lessons focus on applying the process of forgiveness through targeted activities in a group setting. Instructors may use their observations over the course of the ten sessions to better understand youths’ relationship to forgiveness and to make possible referrals for more directed forgiveness therapy when
appropriate.
The new manual was developed, designed and written by Dayana Kupisk, a current graduate student at the University of Wisconsin – 
Madison, who spent a semester studying forgiveness under the direction of Dr. Robert Enright, founder of the IFI. She additionally has experience facilitating life skills and employment training to groups of at-risk youth, which greatly informed her approach for translating research-based information on forgiveness into creative activities that may be done with groups of youth.
“This manual is intended for professional counselors with training to do group counseling with middle school and high school students,” according to Kupisk. “Since it contains therapeutic content, in which students focus on forgiving people who have hurt them, it is not for general classroom use, either by teachers or by counselors. Instead, this manual is intended for short-term group counseling with students who have been referred for treatment within the school setting.”
Kupisk said she wants the F.O.R.G.I.V.E. manual distributed to as many potential users as possible. To accomplish that, she decided to allow the IFI to add the manual to its growing compilation of forgiveness intervention manuals and curriculum guides and to offer it at no cost. The manual can be ordered through the IFI website Store.
The International Forgiveness Institute, based in Madison, WI, is the only worldwide organization that focuses exclusively on forgiveness education for students from pre-kindergarten through high school. The Institute’s school forgiveness programs are operating in the U.S. and 30 other countries.
Just Released: New Training Video by Dr. Enright – “Forgiveness Therapy in Practice”
Forgiveness is the process of uncovering and letting go of anger at someone who has caused pain. This process can be the path to healing in many situations, as anger is frequently at the core of a client’s issues and may be the center of a number of disorders.
The forgiveness therapy model is flexible enough to be integrated into any therapeutic approach. Fostering forgiveness in therapy involves uncovering the depth of the client’s anger, obtaining commitment to forgive, and working on being able to forgive. The final phase of this therapy is the discovery of meaning in what has been suffered, finding a new purpose in life, and exploring one’s own faults and the need to be forgiven by others.
In this 100-minute video program, Dr. Enright demonstrates his approach to forgiveness therapy with a female client who feels hurt by her mother.
This video, produced by the APA, is not available for sale on this website.
Order exclusively from:
Forgiveness Education Expands in Lebanon
Saida, Southern Lebanon – About 40 miles south of Lebanon’s capital of Beirut, the International Forgiveness Institute – Lebanon is making major inroads into the sectarian violence that has disrupted and crippled the country for years. Calling its program “Forgiveness Education for Violence Prevention and Peace Building,” the Lebanon effort is headed up by Ramy Darwich Taleb who grew up in the northern part of the country. Here is Ramy’s most recent progress report on the IFI program:
Our goal is to make forgiveness principles known throughout Lebanon with programs at schools, refugee camps, youth centers and churches because we believe that Forgiveness Education for Violence Prevention and Peace building brings about behavioral change that will help prevent conflict and the practice of violence.
Due to the cultural impact the younger generation is minted with the idea of taking revenge to defend one’s honor. Many have never heard of Forgiveness as an option of dealing with conflict in a peaceful way.
Ramy Darwich Taleb (in white sweater) works with students.
We are very glad to have been given the opportunity to implement the forgiveness program in a public school near Saida, the South of Lebanon. The school has a variety of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian and Gipsy students which depicts the miniature version of the situation in the whole country very well. Obviously these students have barely ever heard about forgiveness, which makes us even more excited and thankful to be able to impact these youth.
For the beginning we chose a group of 230 students from grade 1 to 9 that will partake in the 7 sessions Forgiveness program for 7 weeks. We divided the group into two groups, which means our Facilitators will work with the first 115 kids from February to March and the second group from April to May. The principle of the school seems to be very open to the program, so we might be able to establish a full year curriculum for the next school year.
Another Organisation called “Open Gates” in Saida that works with Bedouin women, invited us to provide a weekly program, starting in February for a group of 10 young women at the age of 17-28 that combines bible studies with the forgiveness program. These women live in a Muslim community but are interested in learning more about Jesus. They partake in a Jewellery project that provides work and a spiritual home for them.
IFI-Lebanon teamed up with other relief organizations last Sunday (Feb. 14) to conduct the first bridge-building event for Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian youth in Lebanon. Through a day-long series of fun team activities, the event helped overcome hostility and break down barriers of sectarian division in Lebanon.
Read more about Bridge-Building activities in Lebanon.
In addition, our team strives to stay in contact with the youth groups from the Palestinian camp Shatila, the Lebanese/ Syrian Youth group from Barja and the Syrian students from grade 4 and 5 from the Syrian Refugee School in Choueifet, that already participated in the Forgiveness Program. We scheduled a meeting with every youth group individually once a month and plan a monthly event with all of the groups together to work on reconciliation between these opposing people groups. For this month we will have an activity by the sea with surfing opportunities and games.
During our work in the Shatila camp we have recognized a need of relief work within the camp. We got in contact with 3 families that are in need of medical or financial support that we want to address. Therefor we plan on visiting these families every other week, to bring the message of forgiveness and as well provide for their urgent needs.
Ramy with his family.
Furthermore, we got in contact with Youth for Christ Lebanon (YFC Inc.) who want to dedicate this year 2016 to reconciliation. The IFI Lebanon Team will provide a one-day staff Training for YFC staff to introduce the Forgiveness Program and discuss further cooperation.
A group of Ex-Fighters of the civil war that aim to promote peace and reconciliation through their testimonies on schools and other institutions have invited Ramy to introduce the Forgiveness Educational Program to this group to discuss further cooperation as well.
Another opportunity has opened up with a community center called “Tahadde” that is placed in one of the poorest living areas for Lebanese. We are invited to do the program with their youth- and women groups and plan on doing so in April.
Ramy Darwich Taleb
Forgiveness Education Around the World
Editor’s Note – As Dr. Enright winds down his world forgiveness travels this month, he provided this update from Galilee, Israel. Here is the encouraging news from each of the countries he is visiting.
Belfast, Northern Ireland
We had many meetings in Belfast including a two-day workshop on forgiveness education for teachers from 10 different integrated schools. The integrated schools have both Irish Catholic and British Protestant students going to the same schools. Up until about 10 years ago, this was very rare.
Last June, a 2-hour “Forgiveness Education Pilot Session” was held at Hazelwood Integrated Public School by NICIE- the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education. Since then, one of the teachers there has been working to recruit other schools into the program and we’ve worked very closely with NICIE to expand the Forgiveness Program to other integrated schools.
Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece
Peli Galiti, a native of Athens who now lives in Madison, is taking the lead in bringing forgiveness education to about 1,000 students in Greece this year.
She arranged for me to speak at two public meetings and two meetings with teachers. These were very productive, especially the public talk in Athens where 350 people showed up—a capacity crowd. In Thessaloniki, more than 150 people attended our presentation. The enthusiasm was evident among both crowds. It seems to me that Greece is fertile ground on which forgiveness education can grow.
Peli is arranging for our anti-bullying forgiveness guide to be translated and published in June by an Athenian publisher who will do the same with our Curriculum Guides.
Visit the IFI-Greece pages on Facebook.
Jerusalem and Galilee, Israel
Doors are also opening for forgiveness education in Israel. I had a meeting yesterday with educators not only from Jerusalem but also as far away as Jericho (a six-hour walk–15 miles, 24 km—with an elevation increase of about 3,400 ft, 1060 km).
A peace leader here is encouraging me to initiate a major conference in June of 2017 with a focus on forgiveness within the Hebrew/Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions (day one) followed by a second day of talks on Forgiveness Education, with invitations going to people in Greece, Belfast, Liberia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and anywhere else we would like to plant forgiveness education.
Hmmmm…..a major conference on forgiveness and forgiveness education in Jerusalem? With a publication of the papers presented there?…….Ok……… Would any of you like to help work on the development of this major conference in Jerusalem? I have a donor in mind in Milwaukee. We shall see.
Today we’re off to the Mar Elias Educational Institutions (MEEI) in Ibillin, Galilee, where we began a Forgiveness Program in their high school last year. This school year, eight high school teachers at MEEI are teaching forgiveness, involving about 600 students in the lessons.
I’ll meet with the head of Education in Galilee before trekking back to Jerusalem for more meetings with peace leaders there, who all of a sudden are seeing the great need for forgiveness education.
For example, a school system that encompasses Jerusalem, Jericho, and the West Bank today committed to forgiveness education for all students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade – 20 schools and 10,000 students. I will try my best. They want me back in mid-August to do teacher training. They could become a model for this area of the Middle East……..we shall see.
One peace leader in Galilee said to me yesterday, “There is no way out of the conflicts here unless forgiveness is in the center.” Ask me if I agree with this. Oh, and this same peace leader wants to start forgiveness education in the prisons of Israel, which he mentioned to me before I mentioned to him our latest initiatives at the Columbia, WI maximum security prison. He was surprised and happy to hear of our ideas.
The Philippines
Finally, I will head to the Philippines, a tropical Southeast Asian country composed of more than 7,100 islands that are home to more than 98 million people.
The acceptance of forgiveness education in Manila and neighboring Quezon City has been exceptional since last year when we started working with Metro Manila Christian Church and Hope Worldwide, an international organization that provides protection, education and health services to poor Filipino children.
Visit the IFI-Philippines pages on Facebook.
