Through a newly developing community service initiative, Howard University students will be granted the opportunity to bring their education to the Youth Services Center (YSC) Detention Facility.
Members of the Psi Tau Chapter of Alpha Kappa Psi, a business fraternity, have joined forces with members of the Howard chapter of the Petey Greene Foundation (PGP) to formulate a program proposal that supports the professional development of youth at YSC. Although YSC provides education through the New Beginnings Youth Development Center, these students have identified gaps in educational programming, which their proposal seeks to address.
Students have identified limited educational options for youth in YSC, as well as a lack of digital or virtual learning, which is important in an era of rapidly developing technology. Allowing for more digital learning would increase access to tutoring and amplify the outreach, which could get more Howard students involved with this initiative who may have had transportation obstacles.
Students also identified the limited diverse learner support that was offered by PGP tutors as an area for growth, since some of the incarcerated youth would benefit from services that were offered in other languages or services that supported learning disabilities.
In the proposal, students will teach youth about financial literacy and budgeting basics, resume and cover letter development, mock interviews and communication skills, certificate program options that can be obtained without a college degree, different career pathways and goal setting through an in-person professional development workshop series. Each workshop would last about 60 – 90 mins and include guest lecturers and testimonials from industry professionals.
Jaleah McDonald, a junior political science and criminology double major from Miami, is one of the tutors who works with the PGP Howard University chapter. She is also one of the main organizers of the professional development program.
McDonald says her passion for helping the incarcerated youth comes from an interaction she had while tutoring. During one of her sessions, she met a male title 16 juvenile inmate, who would be immediately transferred and charged as an adult once he turns 18 years old.
“He inspired me to create this program,” she said, “He told me they don’t have things like professional development, or financial literacy and was asking me to advocate for it on his behalf.”
The program aims to seek students from various majors across Howard University, to expose incarcerated individuals to different career pathways that they can enter upon release. Psi Tau’s partnership is meant to enhance the financial literacy aspect of the program.
“We have to use our education to empower others,” she said.
PGP exists to support the lives of currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. Named after the formerly incarcerated Ralph Waldo “Petey” Greene, a civil rights activist and media personality, PGP is the largest provider of tutoring and college readiness programs for incarcerated people in the United States. PGP also hosts a historically Black college and university (HBCU) Forward Initiative where they aim to elevate students from HBCUs and equip them with resources to become volunteer tutors and criminal justice advocates.
The HBCU Forward Initiative is where the relationship between PGP and Howard University first began. The first HBCU PGP chapter started at Howard in January of 2021 and has since expanded to include other HBCUs. In addition to preparing students to become tutors in correctional facilities, PGP also supports students in processing their tutoring experience emotionally and guides them in developing on-campus justice-oriented programming.
Sanaa Reynolds, a sophomore sports medicine major with double minors in biology and chemistry from Atlanta has a passion for the intersection between medicine and juvenile justice.
“My Uncle was incarcerated when he was 14,” she said. “He had a heart condition and while he was in the system, they were just neglecting him”
With goals of becoming an orthopedic trauma surgeon, Reynolds has been consistently involved with the on campus PGP chapter for over a year. Being involved with PGP has helped her reach her ultimate goal of giving back to the community as much as possible.
“People can change,” she said. “They just need someone to believe that they can”
The HBCU Forward Initiative directly aligns with the program mission of the Petey Greene foundation, by allowing students like Reynolds the opportunity to support the academic and career goal of incarcerated individuals. While PGP traditionally focuses on tutoring, the new initiative proposal includes workforce readiness, self-efficiency and professional development. It aims to address serious gaps in career preparation and practical life skills that incarcerated individuals often face.
The program is in phase two of development. Students involved have gained the initial approval and received excitement from the larger section of the PGP foundation. They are now seeking to improve minor details before implementing the program fully, which they plan to do at the beginning of the upcoming fall semester.
Nicole Moses, a junior political science major and legal communications minor from New York who is also affiliated with the Howard University PGP chapter, emphasizes the importance of Howard students embracing this new initiative.
As secretary of the juvenile justice committee at the Howard University chapter of the NAACP, Moses has an extreme passion for combating the school – to – prison pipeline. She encourages students to get involved and make an impact on the youth in their communities.
“A lot of growth happens when we practice what we preach,” she said. “When you get involved with initiatives like these your impact becomes larger than just our campus.”
