SCC-CIVIC-PG Track B: Improving Outcomes for People Directly Impacted by Incarceration Through Civic Studies Education that Includes Meaningful Employment

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This project in the NSF CIVIC Innovation Challenge program expands upon the Boston-based program of the Tufts Educational Reentry Network, MyTERN, that combines Tufts University courses with community-based resources, cultivating knowledge, skills, and capacity for increased civic engagement among formerly incarcerated people. There are many daunting barriers people and their local communities face with social reintegration into community life following release from prison after long prison sentences. Successful reentry into the community includes securing housing and employment, obtaining a high school or college education, and addressing substance use and other mental health needs. The proposed project takes an approach to social innovation where education in civic studies and community engagement are central aspects of a robust reentry program. The multipronged approach of the reentry program that this project envisions is expected to decrease recidivism and increase the social-emotional health of marginalized communities most impacted by incarceration. This project develops a plan for a social innovation program to substantially reduce recidivism, building on the MyTERN program at Tufts University, creating new internships with MyTERN, providing greater reintegration and civic engagement opportunities, increasing its capacity for more sustainable impact on individuals, communities, and the society at large, and measuring the outcomes and benefits of the program to the community and for the returning citizens. It focuses on the qualitative impacts of the reentry program on securing employment, continuing education, social and emotional well-being, and community engagement measures, a type of data not typically captured by reentry studies that generally focus on recidivism. It identifies local organizations supporting civic engagement in the fields of reentry, recovery, and workforce development, and brings together innovators and civic entrepreneurs with local and state government agencies. The internship-employment sites will also be cultivated from among the network of community organizations that the Tufts’ Tisch College of Civic Life has established for undergraduate interns to work on social issues affecting the local community. The research findings will be broadly shared among academic, local and national community-based audiences, non-profit organizations, and government agencies working with formerly incarcerated people or reentry programs.This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program—Track B. Bridging the gap between essential resources and services & community needs—and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.