Prison to College Pipeline

JDCY's Prison to College Pipeline program (P2C) is designed to support the education and empowerment of juveniles incarcerated in Washington, D.C. Our point of contact with youth begins within the juvenile justice system. Via the P2C we offer one-on-one tutoring services to New Beginnings residents (formerly Oak Hill) to improve literacy skills and reinforce the option of post-secondary education as an opportunity to excel. We also offer arts activism based group workshops that focus on developing leadership and encouraging critical thought.

Our overarching goal is to help the young people who participate in our program develop into positive leaders in our community upon their release.

JDCY recruits and trains University of Maryland College Park students to tutor, mentor, lead workshops, and coordinate events for the program. Our pedagogical approach includes both arts activism and popular education methodologies, which rest on the foundation that youth and adults alike serve as both teachers and learners.

Volunteers participate in the following committees:
  • Workshops Develops a series of leadership and political education workshops that delve into topics relating to hip hop culture, college prep, self identity, re-entry and recidivism; and arts activism.
  • Tutoring Works with individually assigned students to strengthen their reading and math skills, with political education curriculums tailored to the specific needs and progress of the student being tutored.
  • Resource Committee Raises public awareness about the prison industrial complex and the juvenile justice system by holding forums and coordinating annual holiday gift drives to provide incarcerated youth with journals and writing materials for the holidays.

F.I.R.E. (Freedom Involves A Revolutionary Education)

JDCY coordinates an organizing education and training program for DC youth that have been affected by the juvenile justice system. We believe that those most impacted by the issues have the most important role in creating solutions, because their experience generates a perspective and level of expertise specific to their needs. While participating in this program, youth learn to identify strategies to achieve power and effect change on a personal and political level; to identify effective alternatives to incarceration that simultaneously reduce juvenile delinquency; as well use art as a tool for social change.