0 COMMENTS
With generous support from Ascendium Education Group and over ten years of experience facilitating college programming in Tennessee’s prisons, THEI has created Navigating Forward, a collection of clear, digestible, and comprehensive college navigation materials explicitly designed for learners in the carceral context, with special consideration for the unique challenges and needs of Prison Education Program (PEP) students. Each collection comprises individual resources that can stand alone or be shared collectively. A Glossary of Terms also accompanies the three collections to help make the resources accessible for as many students as possible, regardless of their starting point. The collections include Navigating the College Landscape, Navigating Financial Aid, and Navigating the Transfer Process.
PEPs that are new to supporting incarcerated students, or lack the time and capacity to develop their own resources, will also benefit from these ready-to-use tools. While a toolkit is no substitute for robust, direct support, THEI is grateful for this opportunity to lend support to strengthening the growing PEP community by informing and empowering students and other stakeholders.
This initiative follows the U.S. Department of Education’s reinstatement of Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated students in 2023, which reversed a nearly three-decade Pell ban on Pell access for incarcerated students.
