James Monteiro spent years bouncing in and out of the prison system before he earned a college degree and finally overcame his own internalized “once a convict, always a convict” mindset. He later went on to pursue a master’s degree and co-found the nonprofit Reentry Campus Program (RCP), which helps others facing similar obstacles. Working with the Rhode Island corrections system, Roger Williams University and numerous community-based organizations, RCP supports currently and formerly incarcerated learners in their work toward academic and career success. Ascendium has supported RCP’s recent work, including efforts to produce a program guide so that others might be inspired to replicate RCP’s model in their own cities and states.
RCP centers incarcerated learners and the knowledge they already bring to the table. It tailors learning support and courses to adult learners to help them accelerate their academic progress. It also uses prior learning assessment, a little-employed strategy in the postsecondary education in prison context, which allows learners to earn credits by demonstrating their mastery of academic subjects. But what does prior learning assessment look like in practice? And what other resources are available to help ensure incarcerated individuals experience successful reentry? Monteiro recently spoke with Ascendium about the inspiration behind RCP and the importance of prior learning assessment for incarcerated learners. The conversation is captured in the following clips.
Q: What is the Reentry Campus Program?
Q: What would you say to others who want to start a program like RCP?
Q: What does prior learning assessment look like in practice?
Q: How does prior learning assessment empower incarcerated learners as they prepare for reentry?
Q: In addition to education and training, what other resources are critical to an individual's success post-release?
Achieving our philanthropic mission requires building awareness and urgency around persistent barriers and promising solutions to postsecondary education and workforce training. Media plays an important role by bringing issues and successes to light through storytelling. Ascendium partners with highly experienced media sources like The Hechinger Report and Open Campus to advance the stories important to making system-level changes to help more learners from low-income backgrounds succeed. Whether it’s providing resources for learners in prison or changing policies that prevent students from receiving credit for work done, the stories they’re telling make a difference.
$69 Million+ in New Grants Highlighted by Investments in Job Pathways, Partnerships and More
Ascendium’s philanthropy is off to a fast start in 2023 with the recent approval of 34 grants totaling over $69 million. Included in these grants is support for initiatives to connect learners from low-income backgrounds with good jobs, strengthen conditions for partnerships to emerge between colleges and employers, invest in high-quality postsecondary education in prison systems and more.