CREATIVE OPTIONS
Creative Options for the Incarcerated

Self-Help correspondence courses, mailed lesson by lesson, to men and women in California Prisons.

Are you interested in prison and jail ministry, but don't think you have the time? Consider sharing your life experience from home — anonymously — with men and women in California prisons seeking to restart their lives, by guiding them through our correspondence lesson programs.
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A visit that shaped our name for mercy; a moment of blessing between an incarcerated man and Pope Francis.
"Let the Church always be a place of mercy and hope, where everyone is welcomed, loved, and forgiven." — Pope Francis

Who We Are

Creative Options for the Incarcerated is a volunteer-run correspondence ministry serving men and women in California prisons. We pair people who want to change their lives with volunteers who mail them self-help lessons, one at a time, and respond by hand to every lesson sent back.

No apps. No logins. No waiting rooms. Just a pen, a stamp, and someone on the outside willing to walk alongside someone on the inside.

God, the Father, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Course Offerings:

Every lesson is answered by hand and mailed back — there is no app, no login, and no waiting room. Just a volunteer, a pen, and someone on the other end who enrolled because they wanted to change.

Anger Management for Men and Women

Examines anger in its many forms — its causes, its place in our lives — and healthy ways to express and control it, using anger as a motivating force to change ourselves and the world around us for the better.

12 Lessons

Parenting

A three-fold program: to see the whole developing person — mind, body, and spirit — and how a parent can build a healthy environment for a child to grow into a happy, productive adult; to reflect on our own experience of being parented, gaining understanding of ourselves; and to offer ways an absent parent can still share in parenting and give support from a distance.

6 Lessons

Introduction to the Twelve Steps

The Twelve Steps of A.A. and N.A., studied one lesson at a time. The questions accompanying each lesson are designed to deepen understanding of the Steps — and of the person studying them.

12 Lessons
Footprints in the Sand poem

Healing Prayer Journal

The Story of My Life — a guided journaling process, suggesting ways to reflect on your life and pray your way toward healing.

  1. Collecting My Memories
  2. Writing My Healing Prayer Journal Entries
  3. Naming My Joys and Appreciating My Blessings
  4. Owning My Hurts and Failures, Forgiving Myself and Others
  5. Identifying My Gifts, Values, and Dreams
  6. Living the Present Moment to My Fullest Potential
6 Lessons

**Please Note: This course is available only after one of the others have been completed.

Men and women in California prisons are working to rebuild their lives, and your experience can help. As a volunteer, you'll walk with them through our lessons by mail from your own home, without giving your name. It's prison ministry that fits a busy life.

Download the printable form to enroll an inmate today.