News - October 24, 2008

Serious fun: newest SUF volunteer initiative is making dolls

SUF

SUF’s newest volunteer opportunity is proof that you never know where life will take you. SU Florence student Ashley Poulsin recently participated in the Rehabilitation through Creativity volunteer program, a collaboration with a local organization in an initiative that brings hope and comfort to inmates in the women’s prison through a doll-making laboratory.

The program is an open-minded approach to helping those inmates who are able to leave the prison for this community service program. It allows them to gain privileges through sewing different types of dolls that are then sold to support various programs at the prison. With the use of cloth, cotton batting, and needle SUF volunteers join the women in making the toys, a process taking four sessions of two hours each per doll. The resulting fairies, gnomes, baby dolls, newborn dolls, animals, and clowns have brightened the lives of children throughout Tuscany. The participating inmates feel the sense of accomplishment that comes from creating objects that will bring joy to others, while learning rehabilitative job skills.

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Poulin remarks, "I appreciate the fact that it's rehabilitation through creativity because it not only facilitates the transition back into society, but gives these women the opportunity to create a life for themselves through the development of a skill."

SUF staff member Elena Gavilli, who organized the collaboration with the laboratory says, “This program offers students the opportunity to help someone who is at the lowest point in her life a chance to make something beautiful and useful. For the prisoners the creative process is also a healing one; the work improves their self-esteem and helps them as they try to come to terms with their past and prepare for their future, when they will be released.” To anyone who has experienced the transformative power of making things, this makes perfect sense.

The women are extremely inviting and are happy people have come to help them. Poulin was also pleased with this aspect. She was particularly happy with "their encouragement to use Italian."

Notes SUF Director Barbara Deimling, “Certainly, spending time with women inmates is not something our students thought about before their arrival here. Through participation in this initiative we hope to provide volunteers with opportunities to rethink how institutions can work together and respond to the growing needs of all members of the community, often in the face of scarce resources.”