WVCF Navigators class graduates use Bible as storytelling guide

Wabash Valley Correctional Facility

SULLIVAN COUNTY-- The first Wabash Valley Correctional Facility (WVCF) Navigators class set course for graduation this week. The graduation ceremony took place yesterday at the prison in Carlisle at 12:30 p.m.

No, the 27 graduates have not learned how to guide a plane or ship to its destination.  The class HAS acquired skills focusing on learning, telling and using stories from the Bible. 
 
The six-month course offers participants skills which are crucial to post-incarceration success, including communication, inter-personal, parenting, and leadership.  Graduates also more fully develop positive character qualities, self-esteem and decision-making abilities. 
 
Each student uses a solar-powered audio player to listen to stories from the Bible.  They then learn to tell the stories, teach them to others and experience putting stories into drama, music, art, etc.   The course, taught by a volunteer, is open to anyone interested in discovering more of the literature of the Bible, regardless of their religious background, reading ability or educational level.  No time cuts are involved in the effort. 
 
Navigators organizer Chuck Broughton came face-to-face with the need for story telling when he started ministering in prisons.  He felt a large percentage of offenders do not learn by reading and therefore he mastered the art of teaching with stories.          
 
So far the Navigators course has been taught at 7 Indiana Department of Correction (IDOC) facilities.  
 
WVCF is the first maximum-security prison to offer it with two additional classes set to launch soon.