Unless you are

• decisive but also a good listener!
• committed to social justice!
• someone who likes working with people!
• someone who can juggle lots of different projects and pieces of information!

Are you already underpaid in a managerial position?   Then we have a managerial position where you'll be severely underpaid (actually, not paid at all), but make a huge difference in the life of incarcerated people.  The Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project is seeking a new general coordinator and you could help steer this grassroots community project.  While the project is all volunteer run and attempts to share responsibility and decision making throughout the volunteer base, a general coordinator is still needed to act as a nexus for information, ideas, and logistics around all the volunteer efforts.

The general coordinator does things like:

• Schedule planning meetings
• Identify and troubleshoot problems with the project
• Responds to media inquiries
• Answers e-mail directed to the project
• Meet and develop collaborations with other community groups
• Delegate other volunteers to take on pending tasks
• Act as a point person for Indiana University students taking part in service-learning coursework
• Act as the go-between between Pages and its partner organization, Boxcar Books
• Stay abreast of the progress of filling letters, sending packages, returns, and other aspects of the project.
• Write grants

If you like challenges like these and like doing things you may have never done before, you might be the right person for this very important volunteer role.  The ideal candidate will have some experience working with nonprofits, grassroots community organizations, or social justice movements.  Familiarity with issues surrounding the prison industrial complex is preferred and formerly incarcerated people or those with family or other loved-ones who have been incarcerated are strongly encouraged to apply.

Someone is needed to fill the position in June 2009, but training should start ASAP.  This position requires a 4-10 hour a week time commitment and the ability to check and respond to e-mail on a frequent basis.  A minimum 1-year commitment is needed for this position.

If you are interested, please e-mail mwpp [at] pagestoprisoners.org

The Bloomington Alternative recently published an article about Karen McEwen, one of Pages' core volunteers.  She's quoted eloquently

"Everybody knows what it's like to be alone," she said. "I don't know of anyone who's more alone than prisoners, and to be able to offer something, a book, to me it doesn't really matter what they've done or not done or whatever. But just to give them something that gives me total joy in my life that is a focus of my life and to be able to share it. It's something."

Link

All spaces for this volunteer event has been filled!  Thank you for your interest and support.

If you have signed up for this event, you should have already received a confirmation e-mail from us, or will receive one soon.

If you would like to volunteer with the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project on a date other than January 19, please see more information about volunteering at http://www.pagestoprisoners.org/volunteering

In conjunction with the City of Bloomington's Martin Luther King Jr Day celebration, the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project is organizing a pack-a-thon to help select books, write letters, and package the books and letters to send them to incarcerated people.  This will happen on Monday, January 19 from 10am-12pm and from 2pm-4pm at the project space.  Because our new space is smaller, you must register for this volunteer project on the Bloomington Volunteer Networks web portal.

Thanks for all the hard work that you have put in volunteering with the Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project this fall.  As many of our volunteers will be out-of-town during the holidays, we have modified our volunteer schedule for the coming weeks.

Monday, December 8: 7-9pm
Thursday, December 11: 7-10pm
Sunday, December 14: 2-5pm
Monday, December 15: NO PAGES VOLUNTEERING!
Thursday, December 18: 7-9pm
Sunday, December 21: NO PAGES VOLUNTEERING!
Monday, December 22: NO PAGES VOLUNTEERING!
Thursday, December 25: NO PAGES VOLUNTEERING!
Sunday, December 28: NO PAGES VOLUNTEERING!
Monday, December 29: NO PAGES VOLUNTEERING!
Thursday, January 1: NO PAGES VOLUNTEERING!
Sunday, January 4: NO PAGES VOLUNTEERING!
Monday, January 5: NO PAGES VOLUNTEERING!
Thursday, January 8: 7-9pm
Sunday, January 11: 2-5pm
Monday, January 12: NO PAGES VOLUNTEERING!
Thursday, January 15: 7-9pm
Sunday, January 18: 2-5pm

After this, pages resumes its normal volunteer schedule:

Monday 7-9pm
Thursday 7-10pm
Friday 2-5pm

Watch your inbox for special Get Stuff Done! volunteer sessions that might happen over the holidays.

Best,
Geoff

It's that time of the semester again - finals are looming and most are looking forward to a much needed break from school and all the hard work you've been putting in at Pages. Before you enjoy the winter break, you can do a few things to continue to help out Pages!

Donate Your Unused Print Quota

If you have unused print quota in the labs, please consider printing out a few copies of important documents that we use at Pages, so we can direct our funds at sending books instead of making copies.

Please print these documents double-sided. For help doing this, please see: http://kb.iu.edu/data/aprm.html

Here are some documents that could use some printing:

• Pages to Prisoners pamphlet: http://www.pagestoprisoners.org/sites/pagestoprisoners.org/files/Pages%20Pamplet%202008.pdf (Remember to print double-sided)
• National Prison Resource List: http://www.prisonbookprogram.org/nprl.pdf
• Jailhouse Lawyers Guide: http://www.jailhouselaw.org/CCRNLGJHL.pdf (and a new Women's Appendix: http://www.jailhouselaw.org/JLH%20Appendix%20for%20Women.pdf) (It's long, so remembr to print double-sided)

Donate Textbooks

Can't sell back the textbooks you used this semester? Or, do you want them to become far more valuable than the $10 you might get back at the bookstore? Donate them to Pages and we'll put them to use!

Since pages is not always open during the day, printing and textbooks can be brought to our partner Boxcar Books during any of the hours that they are open.

Boxcar Books <http://www.boxcarbooks.org> is located downtown at 408 E. 6th St. next to the Runcible Spoon and behind the downtown Bloomingfoods.

Thanks for your help,
Geoff

It's Bowl-A-Thon time again.  Please read the message below and download and print copies of a donation letter to give to friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers as well as the pledge form (copies of these can also be picked up at Pages to Prisoners).  Then come out and bowl for a good cause on Saturday December 5, 2009.

Who: You, our valued volunteer

What: Bowling to raise money for Pages to Prisoners

Where: Indiana Memorial Union Bowling Alley – The Back Alley

When: Saturday December 5, 2009 at 3pm, but start collecting right away!

Why: Unfortunately, money is necessary to send packages, to print forms, to buy dictionaries and packing supplies, etc.

Please join us in this important fundraising venture to keep our beloved project capable of doing its great work. Use the back of this sheet to record pledges from family, friends, coworkers, classmates, and whoever else you can find. Also, consider giving them a copy of our fundraising letter or mail it out to folks.

Important points to make when talking to people:

1. All pledges above $10 are tax deductible. If the donor would their donation to be tax deductible, please write down their full name and mailing address on your pledge sheet and mark the tax letter column. Once we have your pledge sheet and money we will send a tax deduction form directly to the donor.

2. There is no minimum pledge. If people cannot donate money but still want to help out, suggest that they donate their time by volunteering, donating books, or packing supplies such as old envelopes.

3. People can donate in two ways: 1) per point. If someone pledges 10 cents a point and your final score is 76 they will owe $7.60; 2) flat rate. Anyone is welcome to give us $10 (or any amount) despite your score.

Please make sure all your pledges (money and sheet) are mailed to or dropped off at either Boxcar Books or the Pages to Prisoners space, or turned in to Searle or Michael by December 14th.

Questions? Write to mwpp@pagestoprisoners.org.

Go forth and raise money!

In Solidarity,
Pages to Prisoners

While Pages' main goal is to support the reading needs of incarcerated people directly by sending indivduals books, when possible, we try to also provide books to institutional programs.  In many cases, there is little or no funding for these programs and they cannot purchase reading materials that are needed for the programs.  In the past such programs have included a bibliotherapy program and prison library.  We recently got requests for books from two institutional programs and need your help recommending and donating books or funds to purchase books.

Alcoholics Anonymous at the Monroe County Jail

 AA classes are being made available for some men at the county jail. The person organizing these classes is looking for the following books:

• Back to Basics
• Keep it Simple
• 24 or One Day at a Time 
• Daily Reflection 

If you can donate any of these books, please contact us by e-mail at mwpp@pagestoprisoners.org or by phone at 1.866.598.1543 (toll-free).

Getting Out By Going In

Getting Out By Going In (GOGI) is a program out of LA that

"provides simple tools for making positive choices. Delivered in our books, workbooks, workshops and classroom settings, GOGI is focused on one thing: Positive Choices.

The GOGI program is designed to help participants “Get Out” of old behavior by “Going In” for self-improvement. Our coaches empower the individual with information, opportunity and support for lasting change."

They're looking for "ANY books on self discovery."  They say, "Biographies are good. Success stories are great. How to achieve success is great. Books which explore change are good...."

Women in the GOGI program do reports on donated books that they read and discuss them with other program participants.  

At Pages, its important that we try to not send incarcerated people the books that we might think they want/need because they are incarcerated, but books that they request using our experiences to guide us in the same way we would share a book with a friend of colleague.  In that spirit, if you can suggest a book on self discovery, person change, success stories, or how to achieve success, please e-mail us at mwpp@pagestoprisoners.org or leave a message at  1.866.598.1543 (toll-free).  Better yet, donate such a book to us!

Monetary Donations

Monetary donations can always help us purchase much-needed, but rarely donated books such as these.  To donate online with PayPal, visit www.pagestoprisoners.org an click the 'Make a Donation' button on the left hand side of the page.  Checks can be mailed to us at

The Midwest Pages to Prisoners Project
118 S. Rogers St. Suite 2
Bloomington, IN 47404