Walls to Bridges
About Walls to Bridges
Walls to Bridges brings incarcerated students and campus-enrolled students together as classmates in semester-long college or university courses. Classes are held in correctional facilities, and are taught using a circle pedagogy and collaborative dialogue aimed to foster egalitarian and collective learning. All students who successfully complete the course receive a postsecondary credit.
Instructors of Walls to Bridges classes take a five-day training to learn the pedagogy and related correctional and criminal justice issues. Students who wish to take a Walls to Bridges course must apply to the instructor and take part in an interview process to assure their readiness for this type of class. The classes are not taught in the conventional, hierarchical style, but rather employ a circle pedagogy designed to facilitate egalitarian dialogue and learning with the whole self.
An important principle of Walls to Bridges courses is that students from outside the correctional system are not ‘mentoring’ or ‘helping’ or ‘working with’ incarcerated/criminalized students; all participants in the class are peers, learning the class content together through innovative, experiential and dialogical processes.
Thanks to the generous support of the Lyle S. Hallman Foundation, the Walls to Bridges program is based at Laurier's Faculty of Social Work.
Walls to Bridges Course Offerings
Students will receive an email in late spring or early summer (even those entering their first year) announcing which Walls to Bridges courses will be available. The name of the course and the instructor information will also be provided. Students must email the instructor a copy of their CV and a letter of interest. The instructor will contact you to set up a brief interview.
Unfortunately, due to limited space, not all applicants will be able to take the course. Upon acceptance into a class, email fswassist@wlu.ca in order to get help with registering through the LORIS system.
- Instructor: Cheryl-Anne Cait
This section of SK656 will be offered as a Walls to Bridges (W2B) course to be held at Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener on Thursday evenings 6:00pm-8:50 p.m. Half of the students will be from the Faculty of Social Work and the other half will be women incarcerated at Grand Valley Institution.
W2B courses are taught using circle processes, experiential activities and dialogue. Students are asked to be active participants, engage authentically and bring their whole selves to the class. Please note, this is not a class designed to teach you to work with criminalized people. It is an opportunity to study the course content with incarcerated women as peers and as such is based upon collaborative learning and collective analysis.
This course is designed to assist students in developing an understanding of, and gaining insight into the many realities faced by individuals and families in the context of death and dying. This course explores concepts and theories, both modern and post-modern, related to death, dying and bereavement. Various practice issues and cultural beliefs are examined and students are supported in developing a critical analysis of grief therapy and "grief work". Throughout the course, students are encouraged to examine personal attitudes and responses to death and grief.
The Walls to Bridges pedagogical approach combines academic texts and scholarly discussion with knowledge obtained through dialogue among university-based and incarcerated students.
Application process: If you are interested in this unique opportunity, please send a copy of your CV and a letter of interest to Cheryl-Anne Cait at ccait@wlu.ca. She will contact you for a brief interview. Application deadline is June 30, 2022.
This course counts as an Advanced Elective. Year 1 Regular Track students who take this course can use it towards Advanced Elective requirements in year two.