Inanna Institute
We work at a threshold between worlds—between prison and freedom, grief and renewal. Inspired by the Sumerian goddess Inanna’s descent to the underworld, our programs accompany women as they navigate profound transformations of incarceration and re-entry.We believe that healing begins when we are witnessed, not fixed; when we can rest in the depth of our stories and allow something new to be born.We believe that we are interconnected by our grief, and that when one person holds grief we all hold it, and when we tend to grief we all benefit.
Inanna Institute was formally established as a Washington nonprofit to support incarcerated individuals through grief, loss, and life transitions by providing confidential, nonjudgmental listening, peer support, therapeutic arts exploration, and related education.Inanna also seeks to expand access to these supports for individuals impacted by systems of isolation, marginalization, or confinement in the community through a network of trained volunteer partners dedicated to presence, dignity, and compassionate engagement.
support our work
We are deeply grateful to the early supporters who helped us meet our goal of $2,000 through Inanna’s first donor campaign. Your generosity helped cover mileage costs for Inanna's director to continue providing confidential listening support and other services at Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW) through 2026.Inanna is now raising $130,000 to fund its first full year of programming. Your donation helps train volunteer listeners, facilitate trauma-informed painting, writing, and grief workshops, and offer compassionate presence to women navigating isolation, grief, and transition during incarceration and as they return to the community. Each contribution strengthens a network of care, affirming every woman’s inherent worth, connection, and belonging.Listening is how we see and remember one another again.
Mission
We hold space for people navigating descent, healing, and return. We offer places where people can be witnessed without judgment, reclaim their voice, and rediscover meaning.We believe that listening itself can be an act of liberation—a quiet sanctuary that restores dignity and the capacity to grieve, dream, and rejoin the world whole.Rooted in the mythic journey of Inanna, our programs honor each person’s lived experience as sacred, a passage through loss and renewal.Vision
We envision a culture that makes space for descent—where grief is shared, dreams are valued, and those returning from incarceration and isolation are met with respect and belonging.Our work reclaims the ancient logic of renewal: that out of dismemberment we can re-member; out of loss, we can re-weave community.By building sanctuaries, both real and symbolic, we help transform carceral spaces into sites of awakening and compassion.Join us.
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Image: Representation of Inanna/Ishtar at the exhibition 'Venerated and Feared' at Caixa Forum in Zargoza (Spain) December 2024 to March 2025. Plaque of baked straw-tempered clay. The goddess was originally painted red. Loaned for the exhibition by The Trustees of the British Museum.
Thank you
Thank you for visiting Inanna.
Representation of Inana/Ishtar at the exhibition 'Venerated and Feared' at CaixaForum in Zargoza (Spain) December 2024 to March 2025. Loaned for the exhibition by The Trustees of the British Museum.