| Criminalized women are a segregated population in society due to their few numbers and it has only been recently that the correctional system has responded to their gender-related needs and has orchestrated programs and services to rehabilitate them for society. Many criminalized women are mothers. Many criminalized women are Aboriginal. Many criminalized women have no safe place to go after release from prison. It is here that this practicum intervenes by offering transitional housing for a woman released from a correctional institution, reuniting with her children, and hoping to succeed and sustain herself and her family. By designing a therapeutic landscape that offers play, solace, and community, the bond between a mother and child can strengthen, many of the needs of a woman can be met, and the development of a peer group of neighbours can identify, support, encourage, and share their own personal experience, during this time of transition. |
