WOMEN’S PRISON PROGRAM & SCHOLARSHIP FUND

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Every year, Washington Correction Center for Women releases 500 offenders with only an outfit, $40 and a ride to a bus stop. None have a job and many are homeless with no place to go. Two thirds of them reoffend and come back to prison – many within the first year.

In 2013/2014 The Rotary Club of Gig Harbor created the Women’s Prison Program & Scholarship Fund to provide both reentry training and scholarships for inmates being released from the Washington Corrections Center for Women (Purdy Prison).

The Rotary Club of Gig Harbor Women’s Prison Program & Scholarship Fund offers:

    • Continuing education scholarships for women still incarcerated to pursue training inside the prison.

    • Scholarships for those released and desiring to go back to school—college or trade/professional school.

Scholarships have been awarded to women to attend a wide variety of institutions including: University of Washington, Tacoma Community College and numerous community colleges throughout the state, Evergreen State College, Gene Juarez Beauty School and many others. Scholarships are not intended to cover the full cost of education, but to act as an incentive in support of their education.

Reentry Employment Training

Reentry into society after incarceration is a big deal for prison inmates—all prison inmates—and especially women. The challenges and issues they face are often overwhelming leading many back to prison within a few years.

With nearly 1,000 inmates, the WCCW is the primary state prison for women in Washington State and houses women from every county. Some 40-45 inmates are released every month. The Rotary Club of Gig Harbor partners with the Department Of Corrections (DOC) to offer a hard-hitting, comprehensive Reentry Employment Training Program to women incarcerated at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) located in Gig Harbor.

The 6-week reentry course:

  • Covers a wide variety of reentry issues and topics known to be key factors in successful reentry.
  • It is team-taught with inmates themselves—which adds a strong dose of reality behind the walls as well as life on the outside to the course.

Since its inception in 2013, over 600 women from the WCCW have graduated from the course. Graduates receive course certificates, letters of referral and other acknowledgments intended to help them launch new lives following release including eligibility for a Rotary Scholarship to continue their education.

Scholarships

Training and scholarships for inmates being released from Washington Correction Center for Women (Purdy Prison).

Continuing education is one of the major deterrents impacting the recidivism of released prison inmates. Simply stated: inmates who continue their education, either during or following incarceration, do not reoffend.

In 2014 the Rotary Club of Gig Harbor created the Women’s Prison Program & Scholarship Fund for women being released from the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW).

We offer continuing education scholarships for women still incarcerated to pursue correspondence or other training inside the prison and especially to those released and desiring to go back to school—college or trade/professional school. To date dozens of scholarships have been awarded to women attending a wide variety of institutions, including:

  • University of Washington
  • Tacoma Community College and numerous community colleges throughout the state
  • Evergreen College
  • Gene Juarez Beauty School
  • And many other higher learning institutions

Scholarships are not intended to cover the full cost of education, but to act as an incentive.