Naljor Prison Dharma Service: Personal Development Sponsorship Program

Cherishing and caring for others is the source of all happiness. Cherishing ourselves over others, is the source of all suffering and negative conditions.
- Shantideva

My name is Neil Steven Cohen, I founded Naljor Prison Dharma Service in October, 2003. In addition to the dharma teachings and resource materials provided through this prison service, I have also personally mentored a number of prisoners throughout the years, supporting them with psychological and spiritual guidance, books and assistance with college classes. Serving in this way has been richly rewarding for both the people inside and myself.

In November of 2007, I gave deep consideration to how my assistance has truly enriched the lives of those I have mentored/sponsored, since these people had no family or friends on the outside to support them. I also thought about how many other people there must be inside prisons throughout the country who have no outside support for helping them better their lives.

Presently (2/18/08), there are 10 incarcerated people
(8 men and 2 women) connected with sponsors through the Personal Development Sponsorship Program

In light of this, I started the Personal Development Sponsorship Program as a project of Naljor Prison Dharma Service. It is very simple. I have established contact with people incarcerated in various prison facilities who are helping me with this program. My contacts inside the prisons hand out the Personal Development Sponsorship Program applications to those who may qualify for this program.

Qualification requires an incarcerated man or women who sincerely desires to better their life through continued education and personal and spiritual development. It also requires that an incarcerated person has no family or friends on the outside to support them. The person fills out and returns the application for screening.

The main work of this program is to gather an ever-growing team of volunteer sponsors. Sponsors are those who want to offer humantarian service by way of supporting a man or woman in prison in their personal and spiritual development. I then connect the person inside prison with a sponsor and they begin a supportive relationship.

As a sponsor, you would help support the prisoner's personal and spiritual development and continued education in many different creative ways. This may be through providing books on various subjects, articles printed from the internet (prisoners do not have access to computers), helping the person complete their high school studies for a diploma (GED), assist them with college or other vocational courses, and so forth.

Those in prison who have a high school diploma have greater confidence in themselves and find better paying jobs when they are out of prison. In addition, the recidivism (backsliding) rates drop drastically for those who are engaged in some course of personal and spiritual development and have some support.

In this program, sponsors are not asked or required to be pen pals or to provide the incarcerated person with any mundane or entertainment-oriented materials. Our Personal Development Sponsorship Program is designed expressly for helping a person continue in their education and develop themselves on personal and spiritual levels.

A person inside prison may want to get a high school diploma, study some college or vocational courses, engage in studies of religious/spiritual teachings, or study holistic vocations such as shiatsu, acupressure/reflexology, ayurveda, permaculture, meditation, holistic health, nutrition, chi kung, psychology, hypnotherapy, oriental medicine, and so forth. In this sponsorship program, we focus our support upon the vocational, psychological, and spiritual development of the prisoner. In this way, we stay in alignment with the natural course of human development: education, character building and spiritual awakening.

Friends, the Personal Development Sponsorship Program is a powerful way to offer heart-centered humanitarian service and help change a person's life who has no other form of support! Would you be interested in becoming a sponsor?

A few details for those interested in becoming a sponsor in this program:

1) As a sponsor, you would never be asked to send money to the prisoner directly.

2) Prisoners are screened for the sponsorship program by filling out an application/request form.

3) The prisoner will organize and make requests for the areas of study they want to engage in. They would present their requests to their sponsor for consideration of support. No responsibility will be placed upon you as a sponsor except for offering support in ways you feel comfortable with.

4) There would be absolutely no obligations placed upon you as a sponsor to supply anything to the prisoner that is contrary to your personal ethics, financial capability or time limitations.

5) I will be personally available to support sponsors should they have any questions or concerns during the course of their sponsorship.

6) If you feel it is necessary, you are free to end your sponsorship of a prisoner at any time without obligation.

The Personal Development Sponsorship Program is a wonderful way to touch a person's heart, help them develop their innate capacity for goodness, creativity and awakening, and for us to provide heart-centered, humanitarian service in this world. If you would like to volunteer to become a sponsor please contact me for further information. It would be great to enlarge the numbers of our sponsorship team!

- Neil

May the virtue of this work be dedicated to liberating all living beings from suffering, and to the ultimate goal of enlightenment for the benefit of all. May the precious, superior heart/mind of compassion, wisdom and love be generated in those who have not yet generated it. May it not decrease in those who have developed it, but increase continuously.