The National Alliance of Faith and Justice (NAFJ) is pleased to introduce an exciting program, which among other powerful implications, is rooted in the humanities. . .Humanities are the stories that help us make sense of our lives and introduce us to

1
(No Transcript)
2
The National Alliance of Faith and Justice (NAFJ)
is pleased to introduce an exciting program,
which among other powerful implications, is
rooted in the humanities. . .Humanities are the
stories that help us make sense of our lives and
introduce us to people we have never met, places
we have never visited, and ideas that may have
never crossed our minds.
3
Why Pen or Pencil Freedom of Choice?

• NAFJ has introduced PEN OR PENCIL to help youth
  and adults learn history while addressing
  juvenile justice problems.
• Through this demonstration, NAFJ will implement a
  Pre-entry strategy to reduce reentry and
  recidivism which encourages partnership building
  and a unique method of service delivery.

4
Why Pen or Pencil Freedom of Choice?

• The philosophy behind PEN OR PENCIL involves
  several key points
• Life and any journey involves choices.
• Freedom costs Education empowers Crime doesnt
  pay.
• While a school bus, a prison bus, and a transit
  bus each furnish transportation, only two out of
  these three ultimately lead to independence.

5
Pen or Pencil Freedom of Choice explores how
tragedy can impact youth today.

• T (Truancy)
• R (Race and retaliation)
• A (Attitudes)
• G (Guns)
• E (Expectations)
• D (Drop Out (school)
  DMC)
• Y (Yesterday)

6
To make choices involve more than
options.Through PEN OR PENCIL FREEDOM OF CHOICE

• Participants are taught to deflect unnecessary
  risks to themselves, their family, and to public
  safety.
• Participants will be able to establish a sense of
  competence by doing something well.
• Participants will gain a sense of usefulness by
  having something to contribute.
• Participants will establish a relationship with
  caring adults.
• Participants will gain a sense of power in
  learning how to control their own destiny.

7
Eight Thematic Strands
Use of the Social Studies
8
Highlighting the work of civil rights icons, Dr.
Mrs. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mrs. Rosa Parks,
and as main characters, the acts of a
lesser-known, but courageous family, the Carters,
the PEN OR PENCIL curriculum provides a learning
experience which can be used within or outside of
the classroom to help youth more clearly
dissect/analyze choices and influences and help
them be accountable for their own outcome.
9

• On September 3, 1965, Mae Bertha and Matthew
  Carter, sharecroppers, lined up seven of their
  children to wait for the school bus that would
  take them, despite scare tactics and threats, to
  desegregate the public schools in Sunflower
  County, Mississippi.

10

• The Carters, a family who lived and worked on a
  plantation, had 13 children.
• Day after day, while picking cotton in the
  fields, the Carter children watched bright yellow
  buses transport other children to nice schools
• Their school, prior to desegregation, was an
  ill-equipped room, maybe a church or barn, where
  students of all ages were taught by teachers with
  limited education themselves.

11
Forced into compliance, in order to remain
eligible for much needed federal funding after
passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many
southern school districts, to include Sunflower
County, devised a freedom of choice plan offering
families the chance to select the schools their
children would attend, to include those
previously segregated.
12

• The Carter family made choices which resulted in
  years of retaliation and reprisals to reach a
  destination well worth their trials
• They were willing to withstand an intolerable
  burden to obtain a quality education.
• In this story, the parents had a dream for their
  family to leave the cotton fields.
• They knew of only one way to empower their
  children - Education.

13

• The story of the Carters, in text, is published
  in Silver Rights, and as a film documentary in
  The Intolerable Burden.
• These works allow us to use social studies
  through historic accounts to explore vivid
  parallels and help students ponder the meaning of
  freedom, choices, consequences, influences then
  and now, and the role education plays in
  minimizing the cradle to jailhouse peril.

14
Challenging Disproportionate Minority Contact
Using a Logic Model
15
How does disproportionate minority contact apply?

• Contact is defined as initial encounter with law
  enforcement (i.e. arrest), ongoing juvenile
  justice contacts (e.g., referral, hold in
  detention, transfer to adult court, etc.)

16
Community Need

• Numerous investigations have documented the link
  between school suspensions and subsequent entry
  into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
  (e.g. Mendez, 2003 Wald Loren, 2003)
• According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and
  Delinquency Prevention, at one point, minority
  youth represented 62 of the juvenile population
  in prisons but only 34 of the juvenile
  population in the entire U.S.
• Bureau of Justice Statistics

17
Community Need

• The current status of many public policies
  concerning youth have had a negative impact upon
  young men of color.
• The implications of issues such as increasing
  high school dropout rates breed declining
  enrollment in post-secondary education and
  increasing rates of incarceration.

18
Community Need
19
Challenges

• Youth who enter prison at an early age (before
  they have formed the ability and expectation to
  control their life choices, require less time to
  become prisonalized
• There is a lack of engaging, culturally
  appropriate academic activities.

20
Challenges

• Extra curricular activities that may discourage
  problem behaviors when youth are most vulnerable,
  such as when they are unsupervised after school,
  are often inaccessible to youth who do not meet
  school eligibility to participate

21
InputsPen or Pencil Freedom of Choice DMC
Service-Learning Initiative

• Will use multidisciplinary agency support and
  community involvement to proactively reduce
  disproportionate minority contact with law
  enforcement
• Will target public school partners in areas where
  students are at greatest risk.

22
Educational and Service Strategies
23

• CHOICE , for the Carters and for youth today, is
  defined as the power, right, or liberty to
  choose.
• Freedom of choice promotes personal
  responsibility for changing behavior and is
  applicable regardless of race or other
  distinctions
• Encounters with law enforcement can be reduced by
  making more appropriate choices.

24
Pen or Pencil? Freedom of Choice

• Pen(itentiary) . . . If the schoolhouse to
  jailhouse journey continues at its rapid pace,
  the fallout will be more prisons.
• Educational (pencil) failure leads to un(der)
  employment, and if this is at all a factor in
  law-violating behavior, then these patterns
  within specific groups may help to explain
  patterns of delinquent behavior.

25

• Uses history as a template to promote
  responsibility for changing behavior and to
  improve decision-making
• Uses creativity and innovation to engage
  students, particularly those at greatest risk, in
  cognitive thinking and service-learning
• Is aligned with the National Standards for the
  Social Studies and Civic Education Standards

Pen or Pencil Freedom of Choice
26
Pen or Pencil Course Series

• 2 hour enrichment presentations (Pen or Pencil
  Freedom of Choice)
• Extended course series (Pen or Pencil Freedom
  of Choice)
• One-To-Another Academic Mentoring
• Til Death Do Us Part
• The B.U.S. Boycott

27
Two (2) Hour Enrichment Presentations

• View segments of The Intolerable Burden (First
  Run/Icarus Films) and CHOICES (Developed by
  Indiana Dept. of Education, Indiana Department of
  Juvenile Justice, and U.S. Attorneys Office).
• Interactive discussion to follow
• Opportunity to implement service learning
  intervention project, The B.U.S. Boycott

28
Ten (10) -Week Extended Course Series

• Workshops uniquely designed for
  alternative/character education and intervention
  programs
• Appropriate to offer as a specialized multi-week
  summer program which can be offered by community
  or faith-based groups
• Appropriate for juvenile detention courses

29
One-to-Another Academic Mentoring

• Must be at least 18 years of age
• Must possess valid drivers license and auto
  insurance
• Must commit to one year of service as a mentor of
  a youth, aged 5-17
• Must participate in 52-week reading assignment
  and enrichment activities
• Must complete application, be willing to undergo
  background screening and meet criteria
• Must participate in one-day training program

30
Intermediate Outcomes

• Research has shown that prevention/intervention
  programs are the most effective methods of
  addressing youth violence and creating a
  productive work environment.
• Youth diversion programs such as PEN OR PENCIL
  provide an alternative to suspension or
  channeling youth through the juvenile justice
  system.

31
Service Learning
32
Service Learning . . .

• PEN OR PENCIL offers a unique opportunity for
  students of all ages to become involved with
  their communities in a tangible way by
  integrating the B.U.S. Boycott into classroom and
  after-school learning.

33
Service-Learning

• Participants not only learn about democracy,
  citizenship, and public policy, they become
  actively contributing citizens and community
  members by engaging in the B.U.S. Boycott.

34
Service Learning . . .

• The service-learning segment of PEN OR PENCIL
  tests the knowledge, skills, and behavioral
  improvement gained by student participation in
  the course.

35
Service Learning . . .

• Students use the history of the Montgomery Bus
  Boycott as a template to implement strategies to
  learn about history, learn public policy, and
  reduce contact with law enforcement or threat of
  suspension for educational growth and civic
  participation.

36
Facilitators
37
Pen or Pencil Facilitators

• Are adults or may be classroom educators, aged 18
  years or older
• Must undergo a minimum of six hours of
  specialized training
• Are accomplished or possess experience in public
  speaking
• May be certified educators willing to undergo PEN
  OR PENCIL training for introduction into their
  classroom setting.

38
Pen or Pencil Facilitators

• Can be those willing to volunteer their time
• May represent faith and community based groups in
  partnership with the National Alliance of Faith
  and Justice
• Must narrate each presentation and facilitate
  dialogue and training with targeted audiences

39
Pen or Pencil Freedom of Choice

• Is endorsed by the American Friends Service
  Committee
• Is endorsed by the National Council for the
  Social Studies
• Under development and consideration for court
  referral placements

40
Available for Purchase to organizations who
desire to implement PEN OR PENCIL FREEDOM OF
CHOICE

• Student Activity Books
• Facilitators Guides
• Curriculum Guides
• Silver Rights
• The Intolerable Burden
• If interested in becoming a facilitator, contact
  NAFJ . . .

41

• www.nafj-nabcj.org
• P.O. Box 77075
• Washington, DC 20013
• [phone]