Day 4 of Think Outside the Cell Week was facilitated by Bruce Bryant and Lamar Sanchez. Bruce talked about the importance of family, and how each of the participants has assets, skills and abilities that can be used for the benefit of family and community.

The men were guided through two excercizes. One involved asset mapping, where each participant was given two strips of color paper and asked to write on each their strengths, talents and skills. Then, they were asked to say out loud what they had written, as the facilitators wrote the various skills on the blackboard.

Bruce told the men that they all have skills and resources that can help to build their community. Then, the participants formed a circle as Collin Patrick stapled together the strips of paper on which the men had written their talents, so that the strips formed a circle. As the paper circle was passed from one man to another, he explained that while each man had his own strengths and skills, when they came together as a collective, they had the skills of the entire community at their disposal. When they came together, they had all the resources they needed to build their own strong community.

The last exercise of the day involved posing a dilemma to the men and asking them to come up with a solution. One dilemma was this: If you find out that your son or daughter has joined a gang, how would you convince them to get out of the gang? Another involved a situation in which a formerly incarcerated person has to convince a potential employer to hire him, when the employer knows he has a record. Still another dilemma centered on figuring out how to convince a family memnber with diabetes to change his poor eating habits.

The exercise got the men to open up and reflect on their communities, to identify the skills and strengths they have to offer, and to think about the contributions they can and will make. They were left feeling more than ever that they are not their pasts, they are not their mistakes.