The Chapel of Grace will be an All-Faith, quiet refuge and transcendent sacred space that facilitates personal, spiritual transformation and rehabilitation for women incarcerated at Valley State Prison for Women, Chowchilla, CA and their children.

Chapel of Grace’s purpose is to be instrumental in creating new character. All faith groups represented in the facility will have private, separate and unfettered access to this safe-harbor where a woman can collect her thoughts, shed her anger and begin to feel worthy. She will have an opportunity to experience personal, spiritual transformation for the good of her children and her family, upon release. Over 1,000 women every weekend want to attend a chapel service of their choice. 800 are turned away. Some stop trying to attend after failing to get into the service. Chapel of Grace will provide a safe place where these women can find the God of their understanding and begin to make choices that are healthy and life affirming. In this serene place, women will be able to find forgiveness for their past, make peace with their present and discover hope for their future.

Why is a Chapel of Grace so important? Read this letter from a fomer inmate at VSPW: " My name is (withheld). I was an inmate at VSPW for 5 years. I was released in '06. I was incarcerated for a very serious assault. When I arrived at VSPW I wanted to die. I had committed the worst crime imaginable and I couldn't face the reality of that. While I was in county jail, people woudd try to tell me about some God who existed for them but I didn't want to hear it. Besides, if there was this great God, where was He for me? Not until I went over the wall (as they call it) and found the chapel did I think I could ever be cared about or loved again. I did find the Lord and through Him I was able to forgive myself and feel love like I have never felt before. My letter is brief, but I wanted you to know that the Chapel at VSPW is where women can become whole again and learn what it is like to be truly loved and cherished no matter what their past has been. Thank you"

Although society rarely acknowledges it, greatness and courage are often less about what a women has achieved, than by what she has overcome. For a woman in prison, clawing one's way back to a healthy state of being means rebuilding character shattered by pre-teen sexual abuse, anesthetizing drug use, poor partner choices or prostitution, loss of parental rights and feeling worthless. Women desire transformation, but that cannot happen without a place. Please g et involved and invest in the lives of these women.