Support for DC's Previously Incarcerated Youth

This fall our Free Minds members have been hard at work both on the job and serving as Poet Ambassadors sharing their personal journeys of change with the community. They speak to youth facing the same struggles they have experienced, such as poverty and dangerous neighborhoods, and let them know they are not alone. They share their love of reading and writing and how they can be a source of comfort and strength during difficult times.

Thanks to your support, more Free Minds members are employed, obtaining vocational certificates, and giving back.

Job Readiness and Personal Skill Building Apprenticeship Builds Confidence

We welcomed another group of enthusiastic young men into our intensive Job Readiness and Personal Skill Building Apprenticeship for recently released members, with workshops on a wide range of topics both practical such as budgeting, computer literacy, interview skills

and dressing for success on the job as well as personal growth areas such as goal setting and interpersonal communication.

The apprentices also learned about tenant and workplace rights from the DC Office of Human Rights, took a team-building trip to the Newseum, completed job applications, uploaded resumes and created email addresses...to name a few of their accomplishments!

On the final day, each apprentice presented vision boards they created with images of their goals for the future, while also receiving words of encouragement and best wishes from Free Minds staff and supporters. Senior Free Minds members who have been home in the community for several years joined each session, sharing advice and giving tools for success to their Free Minds brothers.

Apprentice Alantae shared, “I've learned from Free Minds that I can achieve the things that my friends who aren't here anymore wanted to do in life, like working and helping their families. I'm so glad I have Free Minds in my corner.”

This is just one stop on our apprentices’ journey to transformation!

Our School Outreach “On the Same Page” Program Reaches New Horizons  

Our Poet Ambassadors have used their motivating messages of change everywhere you could think of: places of faith, workplaces, neighborhoods, college campuses, and high schools. However, believing the impact of reading and writing is limitless; Free Minds reached a new horizon by expanding the message of non-violence to young children in grades 3^rd, 4^th, and 5th!

Hopeful HoriSONS, a DC based after school group that focuses on mentoring (academically and social-emotionally) black boys in 3rd-5th grade, Free Minds Poet Ambassadors had the pleasure of meeting twenty young boys and speaking with them about reading, writing, poetry, the effects of bullying, our “greatest weapons,” and incarceration/post-incarceration experiences. The boys expressed great enthusiasm for reading and writing as our Poet Ambassadors incorporated real life scenarios and physical activity into the session.

We thank the young boys of Hopeful HoriSONS for teaching us that age does not define knowledge!

Free Minds Members: From Prison to a Paycheck

In the past year, 95% of our members in the Reentry Book Club have been working, studying, or participating in vocational training programs, resulting in a 13% recidivism rate as opposed to the national rate of 75% We are so thankful to witness so many members achieving admirable accomplishments. Here are just a few of the highlights: Aquil graduated from Excel Automotive Academy, Gary is working as a violence prevention specialist, Cornelious has been promoted to a supervisor position after being home less than a year, Aaron is studying hospitality, and so many more!

However, we are so ecstatic to announce our Poet Ambassador Jordan is going to college! We met Jordan at the DC Jail when he was 17 years old. Now, he’s headed to college to study business management. Please join us in congratulating Jordan and wishing him the best in his studies!

We are so proud of our members for overcoming the odds! Thank you for making our work possible.