October Newsletter
One of the first students to graduate from the College Bridge program shared that during the writing course he felt "as if we were at an amusement park and each assignment was a different roller coaster of genres. Wow! I get excited from recounting the experiences.” As the College Bridge program expands, I often think back to this comment because it reminds me of the power of education, which is not just the power to increase economic mobility and break the cycle of incarceration, but also, and perhaps more radically, the power to cultivate the sheer joy of intellectual discovery in an environment built to dehumanize people.
Fittingly, the first year of activity of the Puttkammer Center for Educational Justice and Equity also feels like an exciting roller coaster: we traveled the country, from Ohio to Connecticut, to offer trainings on best practices in carceral education and trauma-informed pedagogy; we partnered with colleges and universities to conduct research on the PGP’s student experience and evaluate our programs; we launched a new training program for incarcerated tutors; and this semester we are collaborating with incarcerated scholars in two correctional facilities to offer tutoring sessions led jointly by incarcerated and community tutors.
This month, the efforts and vision of the Puttkammer Center were recognized by a $700,000 grant from Ascendium, a foundation that is leading the charge in changing the landscape of education in prison. This generous grant will enable us to strengthen our College Bridge and our tutoring programs, to ensure that more incarcerated students access and succeed in higher education. The grant will also support a new partnership with external evaluators, who will work with us to refine our data capacity and lay the foundation for a rigorous evaluation of the impact of our programs on the academic outcomes of incarcerated students.
(Almost) a year down - and many more to go! As we prepare to wrap up our first year of activity, we look forward to continuing to build a more just future with and for our system-impacted students.
Chiara Benetollo, Executive Director of the Puttkammer Center for Educational Justice and Equity
Register for our upcoming Justice Education Series webinar on 11/12
On November 12 at 12:30PM EST, join the Petey Greene Program’s Puttkammer Center staff and the Global Freedom Fellows from Incarceration Nations for a conversation on the impact of education in carceral spaces around the world. From South Africa and Nigeria to Argentina, Mexico, and the UK, we will hear the experiences of activists, students, and teachers that make education behind bars possible.
Listen to a podcast spotlighting the PGP’s College Bride program!
“It’s important to think about education as justice in and of itself—education as a human right. Everybody has the right to think in an abstract way, to engage in deep intellectual conversations, to really stimulate those parts of our brains.”
Chiara Benetollo, our very own Executive Director of the Puttkammer Center for Educational Justice and Equity, and our partner Kate Meloney, Director of the Villanova University program at SCI Phoenix, sat down with Inside Higher Ed to discuss removing barriers to higher ed access for incarcerated students. Check out this podcast episode for more on how the PGP's College Bridge program and our higher ed partners are improving college readiness for incarcerated individuals.
Announcing our partnership with Ascendium!
We are thrilled to share that a new initiative from the Puttkammer Center for Educational Justice and Equity, “Expanding College Readiness and Success for Incarcerated Learners” was awarded a $700,000 grant from Ascendium Education Group. Ascendium’s generous support will enable us to expand our College Bridge program, while strengthening academic support programming to increase the number of incarcerated learners who access and succeed in postsecondary education programs.
Our project will focus on three core activities: a College Bridge program fostering the math, literacy, and English language skills of incarcerated learners who are preparing to enroll in credit-bearing college courses; tutoring and tutor training programs for incarcerated college students and scholars; and the production and dissemination of research on best practices in college readiness and tutoring pedagogy behind bars. In the long term, we will work to embed evidence-based college readiness and tutoring support in higher education in prison programs across the country, while changing cultures inside correctional facilities and in higher education in prison programs, elevating and supporting native, self-organized learning communities of incarcerated scholars.
Support the Petey Greene Program at the 2024 TCS NYC Marathon!
We are so excited to be an official charity partner of the 2024 TCS New York City Marathon! This weekend, on November 3rd, 5 runners will hit the pavement and run 26.2 miles for education justice in support of the Petey Greene Program. You can meet three of our runners - Rachel, Ava, and Kimberly - and learn about why they are committed to our mission.
Celebrating National Family Literacy Day
The Petey Greene Program is thrilled to celebrate National Family Literacy Day on November 1st! Family Literacy Day kicks off National Literacy Month with a recognition of how parents and caregivers can foster meaningful relationships with their young ones through literary activities and learning together. The Petey Greene Program is familiar with the impact of literacy and education across generations. One of our former students, Nora, spoke about how obtaining her GED with the help of PGP tutors motivated her children as well: one of her children enrolled in a GED course, another was inspired to go back to school, and her youngest helped her study. “I feel like I’m finally doing my job as a mother; being able to inspire my children this way has been phenomenal. It’s a different way of being a mom,” Nora shares. You can read more of Nora’s story here as we celebrate National Family Literacy Day together!
Introducing the Puttkammer Center’s Evaluation and Development Manager
Nicole Delgadillo, who served as the PGP’s NY Regional Manager for the past two years, joins the Puttkammer Center as the Evaluation and Development Manager. In this role, she will support the research and communication agenda of the Puttkammer Center, while contributing to secure funding to ensure its sustainability. Nicole shares: “I am thrilled to be joining the Puttkammer Center and returning back to a research and evaluation focus after gaining key programmatic insight from leading PGP’s work at a regional level. I am looking forward to designing and executing evaluations and case studies that help capture and quantify PGP’s impact on our volunteers and students. I am also excited to join in conversation with other leading practitioners, researchers, and thinkers in the field to share best practices and continue to improve our programming!"
How can you help?!
You make the work of the Puttkammer Center possible through your unstinting support. We look forward to another year of research and innovation, and we need your help to make this a reality. Make a donation today and help us achieve our vision of a world where all system-impacted learners have access to high-quality, evidence-based education.