Paper Example on Project Rebound

Introduction

Project Rebound is a program that was initiated in 1967 at the San Francisco State University (Jones 37). The program provides an opportunity for the formerly imprisoned student to succeed in education by participating in 4-year degree programs. Professor John Irwin was behind the development of the Project Rebound program in which he aimed at matriculating people from criminal justice schemes into San Francisco University. The major objective of Project Rebound was to make education an option to incarceration, by transforming past prisoners into scholars. Since its inception, the program has enabled hundreds of previously incarcerated persons to obtain bachelor's degrees among other higher scholarly qualifications.

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Beginning 2016, an initiative to move Project Rebound beyond the confinement of San Francisco State University was set up (Jones 68). This was through the support of Opportunity University which provided a grant to facilitate the expansion of the program into seven other campuses of Californian State University. Generally, the campuses that participated in the expansion program comprised of Sacramento State, Cal State San Bernardino, Cal Poly Pomona, Cal State Bakersfield, CSUF, San Diego State and Fresno State universities (Chapple & Elias 497). Typically, San Francisco State acted as the main fiscal agent in coordinating the statewide implementation of the program in the seven campuses. Moreover, the participating campuses received significant contributions encompassing campus infrastructure combined with other services offered by community-based organizations. Importantly, the implementation of the expansion initiative of Project Rebound to the seven campuses was forecasted to take a duration of about 3 years.

According to the 2014 report by California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, it was established that more than 61% of California State's inmates freed in 2008 were later rearrested of even incarcerated in the succeeding 3 years (Jones 77). Accordingly, most employers were hesitant to recruit persons with criminal backgrounds, unsteady employment, or lack of education qualities. As a result, the reintegration of released inmates into society gets considerably difficult. Therefore, with the Project Rebound Program, urban scholars would be offered opportunities to acquire the necessary education and skills relevant in the employment environment. Significantly, college education targeted by the program provides paper credentials, skills in addition to the expertise required in securing job opportunities. However, most of the past incarcerated people find college education not a suitable option for adapting in society. This is attributed to the cost factors related to the education programs. Consequently, many individuals lack awareness programs to aid in the admission procedures and the entire educational activities.

Therefore, Project Rebound enables urban scholars who were previously incarcerated to benefit from the education programs (Chapple & Elias 502). Importantly, the program aims at benefiting the former inmates with education opportunities by providing guidelines on the admission criteria. Subsequently, the program focuses on guiding individuals through college degree application processes, enable them to obtain financial help, and in fulfilling the prerequisites critical for the matriculation procedures. The programs have provided substantial success in offering former inmates opportunities to acquire college degrees. Accordingly, the program succeeded in integrating participants into the communities. As a result, most of the past incarcerated individual have successfully gained access to full range access to academic resources and job opportunities. Furthermore, the program has led to the embracement of persons with criminal life experiences and diversified backgrounds in learning, expanding the sense of opportunity as well as charting new paths for the individuals in the society. The success of the program is supported by the applauds it gains from advocacy groups in expanding educational opportunities for former inmates.

Works Cited

Chapple, Karen, Renee Roy Elias. "Analyzing investment flows in comprehensive community revitalization. The case of Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco." Journal of Urban Affairs 40.4 (2018): 494-517.

Jones, P. "What Does An Effective Reentry Program Look Like At A University Campus?." (2018).