South African female prisoners' experiences of the Sycamore Tree Project with strength-based activities

Abstract

The Sycamore Tree Project (STP) was originally developed by Prison Fellowship to assist prisoners to take responsibility for their crimes and to understand the meaning of constructs such as forgiveness, confession and repentance. For the purpose of this research, the STP was adapted to include strength-based activities. The aim of this study was therefore to explore and describe South African female prisoners‘ experiences of the STP with strength-based activities. An explorative and descriptive qualitative research design was applied. The participants were sampled through the use of a voluntary, purposive sampling technique and included 19 (n = 19) female offenders between 20 and 65 years of age. Data were collected through written narratives and the world café method and thematically analysed. The results identify two main themes from the narratives (experiences of the STP as a whole and experiences of the strength-based activities) and four main themes from the world café (experiences of STP with strength-based activities, new discoveries as a result of participation in the STP with strength-based activities, experiences of strength-based activities and recommendations regarding the STP with strength-based activities)