Many people don’t realize that EDWINS also has a reach inside Ohio’s prisons, and we’re in our second year of offering EDWINS Culinary Clubs to inmates around the state. As a way to connect with potential students and to keep their hope strong during incarceration, EDWINS developed Culinary Clubs, which are small discussion and learning groups led by trained inmate facilitators.
EDWINS provides our curriculum, discussion guides, study materials, quizzes and more than 40 hours of our video lessons to each Culinary Club. Then we go inside to train the facilitators who can directly communicate with EDWINS instructors as students have questions. The Culinary Club members spend 22 weeks learning and will graduate at the end. They receive a certificate and the knowledge that EDWINS is an opportunity for them after they are released!
Recently, the Chillicothe Correctional Institution (CCI) had graduation for a class of gentlemen participating in the EDWINS Culinary Club.
CCI has been teaching this program since October 2015 with 110 men graduating from it since then! At the end of each graduating class, the students spend the day preparing a meal and share their cooking talents with all the men in the Reintegration Unit.
This graduating class selected enchiladas, fried rice, and pineapple upside down cake! Derrick Speights, EDWINS Community Outreach Coordinator, was present for the graduation and issued all the men their completion certificates.
Congratulations to the CCI Culinary Club and all of those on the inside who are working to gain skills and knowledge!