About Us

Vision

By creating effective partnerships with the faith community, the prisons, the corporate community and others, the vision of Opening Doors is to help those impacted by incarceration build healthier relationships resulting in strengthened families, steady post-release employment, reduced recidivism and restored communities.

Mission

Opening Doors is a Christ-centered ministry that believes dramatic life transformation occurs when a healthy, loving community is experienced. Poor skills, social isolation and the absence of caring role models have often prevented those impacted by incarceration from developing healthy supportive relationships. When faith-based volunteers work together with prisons, families and corporate communities, lives are transformed, families are strengthened, and communities are restored.

Governing Principles of Service

These are the words of Him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

Revelation 3:7 & 8

As a reentry ministry, Opening Doors has embraced the Stand In The Gap™ model for offender reentry which surrounds one offender with a spiritual family of volunteers from the church. The basis of this unique mentoring model is Christian fellowship and prayer. As a result, the ministry is limited to prescreened Christian ex-offenders and their families.

Opening Doors In The Family^SM uses qualified family mediators to rebuild fractured communication between offenders and their families. While Christian family mediators are highly encouraged, the ministry does not exclusively use faith-based mediators and the service is provided to offenders without regard to faith beliefs or practices.

The Opening Doors® program is a creative, interactive learning program facilitated inside the prisons with adult and juvenile offenders. Unlike more traditional prison ministries, however, the program focus is not on the spoken Word of God for the purpose of evangelizing those in prison. Opening Doors recognizes that God has called His body to serve others, including those that are incarcerated, in ways that demonstrate His love and invest positively and productively in the lives of those we serve. A foundational principle of this ministry is summarized in the quote: "People don't care how much we know until they know how much we care." The volunteer heart filled with God's love best demonstrates this caring attitude that can make a profound difference in the life of another.

Opening Doors In The Workplace^SM is highly interactive program facilitated for prison staff and emphasizes workplace conflict resolution and team building. Its principles are similar to those which support the offender program, Opening Doors®.

As a Christ-centered ministry, Opening Doors® does not promote itself as an "interfaith ministry" in the same way in which other ministries designed for that specific purpose may do so. However, when ministering inside the prisons, Opening Doors is receptive to working with individuals of the other Abrahamic faiths (Jews and Muslims) who share the goals of this ministry.

Strategy

1. Development of intercessory prayer teams for each supported prison and implementation of Prayers For Prisoners^SM to create a statewide prayer web
2. Implementation of Opening Doors® program to build foundational conflict resolution skills for inmates; recruiting volunteer facilitators from the faith community
3. Implementation of Opening MORE Doors to equip inmates with practical and effective tools to change destructive thinking patterns
4. Implementation of Opening Doors In The Workplace^SM to build foundational conflict resolution and team building skills for staff; developing partnerships with the corporate community to provide facilitation support.
5. Implementation of Opening Doors In The Family^SM which uses qualified mediators to rebuild fractured communication between offenders and their families.
6. Implementation of Stand In The Gap,™ Ohio to embrace every returning Christian offender in Ohio with a spiritual family.