The Rebecca Project for Human Rights

"Crossing the River" is the Rebecca Project's twelve-month leadership development workshop on the written, spoken, and expressed word conducted at the Washington, DC Women's Jail and Demeter House, a residential, family-based treatment program for low-income mothers. For most low-income parents, especially mothers, suffering with drug addiction and treatment issues, the public forum represents a place of marked shame and humiliation. It is in the public space society sentenced them to prison for their drug addiction, or their children are removed from their custody. A critical part of the healing process for mothers and families is therefore, raising their voices up from the hidden and silenced layers of fear and entering into the public space.

It is for these reasons the Rebecca Project established Crossing-the-River's leadership development workshops. In the workshops, mothers and fathers explore internal struggles and suffocated dreams. Crossing-the-River's teaching of the creative word enables low-income mothers to find their own agency in language and thought. Poets, writers, educators, drummers, and even acupuncturists facilitate workshops to create a space of connection, expression, and healing for the mothers and their families. This focus on healing work enables the parents to reclaim lost parts. The parents claim their space, come into voice, and emerge as community leaders and advocates. All parents, identified with leadership abilities and stabilized in their recovery, are also encouraged to join our leadership network of parent advocates, "Sacred Authority."