INTERNATIONAL MEN'S DAY HEALING AND REPATRIATION PROJECT

Inaugurated in 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago by Jerome Teelucksingh, Ph.D., a Thought Leader on Gender Issues and a faculty member in the History Department of the University of West Indies, International Men’s Day is observed in over 70 nations on 19 November of each year. Since 2008, the United States has observed International Men’s Day. In 2012, for the first time, International Men’s Day was observed in a correctional facility when an individual residing in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York accepted an invitation to assume a leadership role for 2012 International Men’s Day as its Empowerment Coordinator. The individual in question donned the mantle of Empowerment Coordinator for 2012 International Men’s Day and coordinated an event in alignment with that year’s theme, “Helping Men and Boys Live Longer, Happier, Healthier Lives”. 2013 International Men’s Day will be observed at the Clinton Correctional Facility under the theme, “Keeping Men And Boys Safe” and under the leadership of its International Men’s Day Empowerment Coordinator. 

The success of the inaugural observance of International Men’s Day at the Clinton Correctional Facility has spawned the creation of the “International Men’s Day Healing and Repatriation Project”. This project promotes the observance of International Men’s Day in correctional facilities throughout the United States. The observances can take the form of workshops and discussions about issues that are in alignment with the theme of International Men’s Day. Engaging incarcerated individuals – intellectually and psychologically – in an event which is observed worldwide – an event which provides them with an opportunity to engage in critical thinking about issues that affect them, their families and loved ones, and the communities in which they lived and will return to, will help them see themselves as “part of a whole”. Providing incarcerated individuals with the opportunity to share ideas, create solutions, engage in critical thinking, and see themselves as a “part of a whole” is a first step toward helping them successfully reintegrate into society upon their release. 

For further information about the International Men’s Day Healing and Repatriation Project, contact the United States Coordinator for International Men’s Day at: insearchoffatherhood@gmail.com.