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ReWired for Life!

At the core of ReWired for Change, is ReWired for Life!, a life skills, violence prevention and self-esteem building program that uses "The Wire" as a tool for personal transformation, designed for young people ages 14-24 who have just left the juvenile system, or are at risk of being in the system. By viewing, analyzing and discussing episodes of the series, participants learn the value of self-reflection and the necessity of thinking critically about their life choices and family and community relationships.

In addition, each module includes a creative arts component, which allows young people the opportunity to process their experience in a positive way. Through journaling, poetry, spoken word, theatre and music, participants are educated in the importance of using creative tools for healing and transformation as opposed to the predominantly destructive coping mechanisms developed as a result of growing up in disadvantaged communities and families.

Using the ReWired for Life! Curriculum, we begin by teaching the importance of understanding social structure; street culture is simply a parallel to the structure of mainstream society. The program emphasizes that although both ways of life have their limitations, injustices and rewards, success as defined by street culture is short lived and comes at a much higher personal and community cost. Participants will see the value in their intellect and the skill sets they have been so adept at using in street culture, while understanding that those assets are transferable to a more legitimate lifestyle.

The fully developed curriculum will be sequential in nature in that each course will build upon the one previous. Our goal is to create a generation of young people who are responsible, productive, civically engaged members of society. There are four main modules:

  • Individual's relationship to him/herself. The first module focuses on the importance of self reflection and the development of critical thinking skills.
  • Individual's relationship to family and community. This module explores the ways in which family, community and the individual positively and negatively affect one another. Students will begin to participate in curriculum related community service which will continue on through the next two modules.
  • Individual's relationship to public institutions. This module explores how these institutions do and do not serve the public, as well as the individual's responsibility to access the support services currently provided by those public institutions.
  • Individual's responsibility to change the conditions and inequities which exist within their families, communities and society at large.

Currently, the ReWired for Life! curriculum is a series of workshops designed for after school programming. ReWired for Change is pleased to partner with Susan Sherman Ph.D and Danielle German of Johns Hopkins University in the development of this school-based curriculum. The ReWired for Life! program in Baltimore will serve as the national model to be implemented in public school systems across the country. We envision implementing this curriculum on a national and global level with the intent to use it as a model for developing other entertainment media based curricula.