FREEDOM EDUCATION PROJECT PUGET SOUND
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Mission Statement
The Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) provides a rigorous college program for incarcerated women, trans-identified and gender nonconforming people in Washington and creates pathways to higher education after students are released from prison. Our goals are to increase FEPPS students’ economic and personal empowerment, contribute to family stability and reduce recidivism through college education. Students in our program earn credit toward an Associate of Arts and Science degree. Through rigorous college courses equivalent to those at accredited universities in Washington state, our program fosters a culture of learning and critical engagement inside and outside the prison. We increase women's economic opportunities, personal empowerment and family stability through access to higher education.
About This Cause
Mission: The Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) benefits incarcerated women and their families by offering college classes in the Washington Corrections Center for Women leading to an Associate of Arts and Science degree. Our goal is to increase incarcerated students' economic empowerment and family stability through education and to create pathways so that women can continue to attend college upon release. In our classes, lecture and film series we hope to foster a culture of learning and critical engagement. We believe that all people have an equal right to a quality education and that education: → decreases violence within prison → reduces recidivism → prepares people to lead thoughtful and productive lives inside and outside prison → teaches skills needed to obtain meaningful employment and economic stability post-release → prepares women in prison to become providers, leaders, and examples for their families and communities We are a member of the Bard Prison Initiative National Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison. Our Program Activities: • College Classes: Women in the prison receive credit for FEPPS classes toward an Associate of Arts and Sciences degree from Tacoma Community College that will transfer to any 4-year institution in the state. FEPPS runs the program, trains and recruits professors and administers placement exams and enrollment records for students. We offer 5-6 college classes and 2-3 college preparatory classes in Math and English per semester. • Professors: Our classes are taught by professors from the University of Washington, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma Community College, Evergreen, South Seattle Community College, and Pacific Lutheran University. All our professors have an M.A or Ph.D. • Lecture and Film Series: We organize an ongoing lecture series with presentations by different faculty on topics ranging from “Playwriting” to “Mathematical HIV Modeling.” We also began a film series in January 2014 facilitated by a professor at the University of Puget Sound. Who and how many people does FEPPS serve? Our students, who range in age from 18 to 65, have had minimal access to education. The majority of women in the Washington Corrections Center for Women are from impoverished backgrounds, and they never finished high school. According to a survey conducted by the mental health staff, over 80% of women at the prison have been victims of sexual or physical abuse. Since we began in January 2012, 324 women in prison have enrolled in 120of our semester-length college courses, and 200 women have attended our monthly lecture series at the Washington Corrections Center for Women (WCCW). Why College in Prison? Women are the fastest growing segment of the prison population. Women in Washington prisons have often accrued significant debt; carry the stigma of incarceration; remain under-educated and barred from employment opportunities. This traps them in a cycle of poverty and a greater risk of their children being imprisoned. Higher education can break this cycle. The inverse relationship between educational attainment and recidivism is steep. According to a 2013 Rand Corporation study, those who go to college while incarcerated are 47% less likely to return to prison than those who do not. (http://www.rand.org/jie/projects/correctional-education.html) Women who pursue higher education return to their communities and families more psychologically stable, with stronger economic prospects, and with a significantly reduced likelihood of being involved in drug-use, crime and violence. This is crucial considering that the majority of women in WCCW are the primary caretakers for their families and children. Part of our college program consists in imparting the skills and environment that enables women in prison to begin to imagine themselves as students, to enable them to engage in rigorous college courses, to achieve economic stability, to keep from returning to prison and become leaders and role-models for the families and communities. Media and Public Education: Our program has been featured in the Tacoma Tribune, Capitol Hill Times and Puget Sound Business Journal. We have held public education events at the University of Washington, Pacific Lutheran University, the Seattle Social Justice Film Festival and the University of Puget Sound. We have been interviewed on KBCS Music + Ideas and KEXP Audioasis. We were chosen by KEXP as a community partner in April 2014 and 2019, and they promoted our work online and held a benefit concert for us.