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

NSF公民创新挑战计划中的这个项目是塔夫茨教育重入网络(MyTERN)总部设在波士顿的计划的扩展，该计划将塔夫茨大学的课程与基于社区的资源相结合，培养知识、技能和能力，以增加以前被监禁的人的公民参与。在长期服刑后从监狱获释后，人们及其当地社区在重新融入社会生活方面面临许多令人望而生畏的障碍。成功重返社区包括确保住房和就业，获得高中或大学教育，以及解决药物使用和其他心理健康需求。拟议的项目采取了一种社会创新的方法，其中公民研究教育和社区参与是一个强有力的重返社会计划的核心方面。该项目设想的重新融入方案的多管齐下的方法预计将减少累犯率，并提高受监禁影响最大的边缘化社区的社会情绪健康。该项目制定了一项社会创新计划，以塔夫茨大学的MyTERN计划为基础，在MyTERN计划的基础上，创建新的MyTERN实习机会，提供更多重新融入社会和公民参与的机会，增强其对个人、社区和整个社会产生更可持续影响的能力，并衡量该计划对社区和回归公民的成果和好处。它侧重于再入计划在确保就业、继续教育、社会和情感福祉以及社区参与措施方面的质量影响，这类数据通常不会被通常关注累犯的再入研究所获取。它确定了支持公民参与重返社会、恢复和劳动力发展领域的地方组织，并将创新者和公民企业家与地方和州政府机构聚集在一起。实习-就业网站也将从塔夫茨的蒂施公民生活学院为本科生实习生建立的社区组织网络中培育出来，以解决影响当地社区的社会问题。这项研究成果将在学术、地方和国家社区观众、非营利组织和与以前被监禁的人或重返社会计划合作的政府机构中广泛分享。该项目是对公民创新挑战计划的回应-轨道B-弥合基本资源和服务与社区需求之间的差距-是NSF、国土安全部和能源部的合作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.