Editor’s note: The Reader assisted Heart Ministry Center in the conceptual stage of this documentary, including providing the organization with trauma-informed reporting techniques, but was not involved in its production.
Amy Holmes has seen how the people most impacted by incarceration can be the least heard when it comes to improving the system.
“It’s a big ask to have someone who works full time and takes care of children drive to Lincoln, take off a full day of work and spend 12 hours in a hearing room to give testimony for our legislature,” said Holmes, who is the chief advocacy officer at Heart Ministry Center, a nonprofit that helps Omahans affected by poverty. “But we can give them another platform.”
That’s why she and her team created the Heart Ministry Center Storytelling project, a 30-minute film featuring personal stories from staff and community members about the impacts prison has had on themselves and their families. The team plans to share the film with lawmakers and leaders throughout Omaha and Nebraska to inspire change on issues like the disproportionate incarceration rates of Black Nebraskans and the trauma of reentry.
“The Heart Ministry Center is interested in helping to solve the problems that lead people to need our services in the first place,” Holmes said. “So if we’re really committed to that, we’ve got to hear from those people who have the most informed opinions about what needs to change and those people are the people who have the lived experience.”
The YouTube video includes reflections from the nonprofit’s late CEO Mark Dahir, 48, who passed away suddenly of a heart attack in early August just weeks after interviewing for the project.
Holmes said she and Dahir worked on a concept for a storytelling project for the last two years. Both had often been asked to share their stories, Holmes said — Mark’s story of his own incarceration and Holmes’ story of a family member’s incarceration.
“It didn’t feel supportive, but more like we were on display,” Holmes said in an email to The Reader. “We were determined to make this project about the importance of the people being interviewed. We want everyone to see our humanity and realize that the person giving the interview is an individual who matters.”
In the spring, Holmes met with media and community partners to talk about ways they could create more space for North Omaha residents to share their perspectives on issues affecting their communities. In collaboration with the Omaha Star, Spark CDI, 1st Sky Omaha, RISE, Omaha Documenters, FRESH Floral, and The Reader, the Heart Ministry Center staff decided to focus these initial interviews on the criminal justice system.
Sheena Carman, who works as a facilitator for the center’s Fresh Start job training program, said interviewing people gave her the chance to learn more about some of the people she works with.
“If you have not been directly affected by courts or jails or prisons, or indirectly with a family member, you don’t really have a good idea of what the process looks like or how it can affect the mental health of the person being incarcerated or their family members,” Carman said.
Carman also decided to sit down for an interview and share what it was like for her to give birth to her child while incarcerated in the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women. She felt it was a beautiful experience because her son stayed by her side for the first five months of his life thanks to the prison nursery program.
“That’s why there’s a program like that, because it works,” Carman said. “It doesn’t take that bond away from a child and its mother.”
The team took care to interview people in a trauma-informed way, Holmes said. All interviews were conducted by Heart Ministry staff members, and those who shared their story got to review the video before their responses were shared with the public.
Dani Rogers, the CEO administrator at Heart Ministry, said although being in prison was traumatic, she decided to share her experience for the project. She wants lawmakers and people within the system to better understand the complex and last impact of being incarcerated. Rogers also hopes the video reaches people who feel ashamed or nervous to share their own story.
“Maybe it gives them the opportunity, or that little nudge to talk about the things that they’ve been through.”
You can watch the short film in full on YouTube. Learn more about the Heart Ministry Center at the organization’s website. Share your story for the project by contacting Amy Holmes at amy@heartministrycenter.org
Read a full statement from Amy Holmes following the death of Mark Dahir, the Heart Ministry Center CEO:
Mark and I worked together on the concept for the project for the last two years. It was very important to us that we provided a platform for people who might not otherwise have one. It was also very important that those participating did not feel exploited. Both Mark and I have been in positions where we were asked to share our “story” and it didn’t feel supportive, but more like we were on display. We were determined to make this project about the importance of the people being interviewed. We want everyone to see our humanity and realize that the person giving the interview is an individual who matters.
I am proud that the participants reported feeling supported in the process. After Mark finished his interview, he said, “I cannot tell you how comfortable Octavia [the interviewer] made me feel.” I thanked Mark for bringing his full self to the interview and he said the process was healing and he was grateful for a space where he could be vulnerable.
In one of the last conversations I had with Mark, he encouraged me to share more and he suggested I give an interview. I told him that it was hard for me because I had never worked someplace where I could really share my authentic self. He told me that we were both getting too old to pretend to be something we’re not.
Like Mark, many Heart Ministry staff have experienced some of life’s toughest challenges. Mark helped to create a space where talented people could get a job, a second chance and give something back. He understood the healing power of helping others because it was healing for him every day. As he often said, “We need this place just as much as it needs us.” I think that give and take between the staff and community members is what makes Heart Ministry so special. The people we serve are healing every day and the staff are healing every day, too.
Contact the writer at bridget@el-perico.com