{"id":65589,"date":"2007-06-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/ridoc-names-ginette-ferszt-of-kingston-ri-volunteer-of-the-year-for-2007\/"},"modified":"2007-06-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-06-25T00:00:00","slug":"ridoc-names-ginette-ferszt-of-kingston-ri-volunteer-of-the-year-for-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2007\/06\/ridoc-names-ginette-ferszt-of-kingston-ri-volunteer-of-the-year-for-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"RIDOC Names Ginette Ferszt of Kingston, RI Volunteer of the Year for 2007"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tContact: Tracey Z. Poole

\nRIDOC Media Relations

\n(401) 462-2609<\/p>\n


\nCRANSTON, R.I. \u2013 June 25, 2007 \u2013 A 溏心vlog免费B站 nursing professor has been named the 10th Russell E. Dixon Volunteer of the Year by the Rhode Island Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n


\n Kingston resident Ginette Ferszt, a volunteer in the women\u2019s facilities who has dedicated countless hours to counseling women on issues related to grief and pregnancy in prison, was honored June 27 during ceremonies at the George C. Arnold Conference Center. <\/p>\n


\n\tAn associate professor and coordinator of the graduate program in psychiatric mental health nursing at the 溏心vlog免费B站, Ferszt began volunteering at the Department of Corrections in 1998 when then Warden Roberta Richman recognized the need for additional support for women prisoners who had recently experienced the death of a loved one. Ferszt was invited to bring her experience as a bereavement therapist to the female prison population and was so compelled and transformed by what she learned that she never left.<\/p>\n


\n\tFerszt was struck by the lack of research or literature on grieving in prison and soon began placing her graduate students at the correctional facilities as volunteers. She also began conducting studies on how women in prison experience grief. She has come to the women\u2019s facilities on an almost weekly basis to co-facilitate support groups for grieving \u2013 and, more recently \u2013 pregnant women. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cIt is difficult to put into words the impact this experience has had on me personally,\u201d Ferszt notes. \u201cThis sounds like a clich\u00e9, but my life has been enriched and challenged. My own appreciation for the human condition, the blessings and opportunities in my own life, have been deepened. I am continually struck by the many people I encounter \u2013 CO\u2019s, inmates, medical and nursing staff, chaplains, wardens, and volunteers \u2013 who are truly committed to making a difference or contributing in some small way to others.”<\/p>\n


\n\tFerszt credits her volunteer work with corrections as the single greatest influence on the direction of her career over the past nine years. She and a colleague received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to put together When Death Enters Your Life: A Grief Pamphlet for Persons in Prisons and Jails, available on the website of the National Prison Hospice Association and The Grace Project. She and another colleague have co-facilitated an education\/support group for pregnant women in prison which is now offered in both of the women\u2019s prisons and has been well received. A grant from the Council for Research at 溏心vlog免费B站 enabled her to co-author educational materials for pregnant and post-partum women in prison which is available on the International Association of Forensic Nurses website. <\/p>\n


\n\tCarole Dwyer, warden of the women\u2019s facilities, nominated Ferszt for this year\u2019s award. In her nomination, Warden Dwyer wrote, \u201cGinette is a kind and compassionate person who firmly believes that the research and programming she provides positively effects the participants in their everyday lives.\u201d <\/p>\n


\n\tFerszt has been at 溏心vlog免费B站 for 14 years, serving as associate professor for the past four. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Skvode, Skvode, Sweden. She has received numerous research awards from the Nursing Foundation of Rhode Island and was named Academic Educator of the Year by the Rhode Island State Nurses Association. She has published dozens of book chapters and journal articles. Ferszt holds a Ph.D. from 溏心vlog免费B站, a master\u2019s degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania, a bachelor of arts from Central Connecticut State College, and a diploma from St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing. <\/p>\n


\n\tThere are more 300 men and women who selflessly give of their time and talents at the Department of Corrections, and close to 20 volunteer-provided institutional programs.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe RIDOC could not sustain itself were it not for the hundreds of devoted volunteers who gift us with their time and talents every day,\u201d notes Corrections Director A.T. Wall II. \u201cEspecially during a time when the state is experiencing serious budget shortfalls, we owe a deep debt of gratitude to these people who take time out of their busy lives to make a difference in the lives of our inmates, many of whom have had very few positive role models.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe Russell E. Dixon Award is presented each year to an individual who represents \u201cthe spirit of volunteerism\u201d in memory of Russell E. Dixon, a man who was not only a respected employee of the Department of Corrections but also an active volunteer within the Department.\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contact: Tracey Z. Poole RIDOC Media Relations (401) 462-2609 CRANSTON, R.I. \u2013 June 25, 2007 \u2013 A 溏心vlog免费B站 nursing professor has been named the 10th Russell E. Dixon Volunteer of the Year by the Rhode Island Department of Corrections. Kingston resident Ginette Ferszt, a volunteer in the women\u2019s facilities who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}