An Inspired Alternative to Incarceration

 In grantmaking, Inequality Gap, non-profit

Many of our society’s disadvantaged youth are tethered to the school-to-prison pipeline, inevitably becoming trapped in cycles of poverty and incarceration. Once a young person enters the justice system, their progress is halted and they become further impoverished. For both individuals and the wider society, a hard reset to this problem is sorely needed.

This is what one of PVF’s grantees, the Reset Foundation, strives for – offering a chance for young people to reset their lives through a residential program that acts as an inspired alternative to incarceration. This program teaches them how to work, study, and live in healthy and productive ways. Intervention at this critical juncture in young people’s lives allows them to move from an oppressive environment to an enriching one.

PVF staffers James Higa and Dawn Hawk checked in with the Reset Foundation recently as they were getting ready to open their first classroom. We provided them with a grant in 2015 to support their On-Campus Work Stipends project, which helps students support themselves by working at the foundation’s residential campus while learning career skills in the process. The grant was specifically designed to provide stipends for students to do culinary, landscape, janitorial, and administrative work.

reset-foundation
From left to right: Jen Anderson and Jane Mitchell, co-founders of the Reset Foundation;
and Dawn Hawk, PVF's Chief Operating Officer

We continue to be inspired by the Reset Foundation’s efforts to reset the broken system of incarceration and empower a new generation of disadvantaged youth. This radical new approach to a seemingly intractable problem is exactly the kind of initiative we live to get behind.

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