Shining Light's interactive magazine "The Loop" uniquely offers strengths-based tools from leading research to improve mental health and build prosocial community, while promoting literacy, communication skills and creative expression.

In 2023, an adaptable peer-to-peer program called Loop Groups was developed to better leverage the benefits of the magazine. Facility partners work with Shining Light staff and selected incarcerated leaders to implement an evidence-based curriculum in ways that work best for them. Loop Groups meet weekly for discussion, accountability and creative expression guided primarily by the pages of "The Loop" magazine.

For facilities like Pickaway Correctional Institution (PCI) in Ohio, this resident/staff collaboration has led to a significant increase in engagement. When "The Loop" magazine first arrived in 2021, PCI had just 4 casual readers - 0.2% of their population. By May 2024, through unwavering support from Deputy Warden Mike Fisher and the Loop Group staff supervisor Stacey Leisure, the facility had 19.5% of their population - over 350 people - interacting with the magazine.

When the Loop Group launched at PCI, about 50 readers quickly engaged, with 7 residents selected to co-facilitate 3 different groups - two for the general population and one for residents in the Frazier Medical Center. Not only does this model enable the peer facilitators to have more agency over their own transformation journeys, but also the encouragement, support and mentorship they provide allows others to feel more understood and accepted, and more inspired to take next steps towards realizing their own potential.