Consortium Webinar Series

This fall, BPI kicked off our Consortium technical assistance webinar series which grows out of one on one technical assistance, the BPI Summer Residency, and our renewed efforts to build a community of practice across programs. The webinar series is joined by a new Consortium Newsletter which launched in November and plans to increase opportunities to gather together in person with more frequency.

Past Webinars:

Communications, Digital Marketing, and Social Media

Friday September 16th, 2022 at 1pm Eastern

In this virtual workshop, led by longtime BPI collaborators Anita Merk and Ojus Doshi, our Flyleaf colleagues discussed how programs can begin to think about and plan for communication goals, identifying and cultivating audiences, how to make your communications cohesive across platforms such as email, website, social media, and more.

Who are you trying to reach? What do you want them to know? What do you want them to do?

Flyleaf uses design to expand knowledge, activate curiosity, welcome audiences and raise awareness to help amplify voices that bring communities together, and has been working with BPI on our own digital communications since 2016.  Learn more about Anita Merk and Ojus Doshi here.

Getting Started With JSTOR in Prison

Friday October 14th, 2022 at 1pm Eastern

This workshop is designed to guide participants in the mechanics of implanting access to the JSTOR database offline for incarcerated students and highlight the resources IKATHA S+R has made available to college-in-prison programs. BPI was the first college-in-prison program in the nation to partner with JSTOR to create this offline research experience. 15 years later, alumna Stacy Burnett ’20, Manager, JSTOR Access in Prison works with college-in-prison programs around the nation on issues of access and equity including themes such as:

1. How JSTOR supports classroom instruction through providing access to academic research tools in prison
2. Teaching basic academic research skills in tech-starved spaces
3. Protecting intellectual curiosity in restrictive environments.
4. How the offline research tool works in prisons
5. Full-text options – challenges & opportunities.
6. Tablet interfaces are coming.

Sign up here for a thumb drive: JSTOR Thumb Drive Request

Alumni Advocacy and Government Affairs, led by Dyjuan Tatro ’18

Friday November 18th, 2022 at 3pm Eastern

Join in a conversation with BPI’s Senior Government Affairs Officer to learn about alumni-led efforts to build government support and new funding streams for college-in-prison and develop relationships and familiarity between elected officials and your program. Dyjuan Tatro will go over how and why he created a government affairs role at BPI, what he has accomplished in this role over the years, and tips and strategies for engaging elected officials in college-in-prison work including possibilities for direct funding and political support. We will also explore potential pitfalls and what to watch out for.

Career Specializations and Post-Degree Coursework

February 10th, 2023 at 12pm Eastern

This workshop will detail public health and education both as curricular specializations in prison, and as career paths for students post-release; it will also outline the ways in which these areas match widespread student interest in making positive contributions to their communities with viable, rewarding, and ambitious career paths. The workshop will be led by program directors and alumni active in the fields.

BPI’s Public Health Program is a direct intervention in a problem widely identified but rarely confronted head on: the underrepresentation of justice-system involved professionals in crafting life-determining public health policy and programs. Public health at BPI prepares students and alumni — uniquely positioned through experience, education and expertise — to deliver services, innovate practices, and advocate for equitable policies in public health, health care, and the human services.

The Education Program at BPI offers coursework and experience in the field of education, writ large. Education coursework and post-release fellowships enable students to deepen their understanding of the complex issues surrounding education and schooling in the US, as well as to expand their sense of possibilities for professional pursuits in the field. The program introduces BPI students and alum to an array of education fields to further support and articulate potential pathways for their careers and/or further study; it also provides attention to varieties and aspects of educational praxis, including peer tutoring and participatory action research projects.

How to talk with Journalists: Media Training

February 24th, 2023 at 1pm Eastern

Have you ever been contacted by a journalist who wants to ask you about your program or what you think about college-in-prison related policy? Most practitioners do not have backgrounds that prepare us for engaging with the media.

Noted Open Campus journalist Charlotte West (Twitter: @szarlotka), who specializes in covering the field of college-in-prison across the United States, joins us to lead this webinar and provide media training insights and best practices from a journalist’s perspective. We will talk about what journalists do, what they are looking for, and what terms you might negotiate when working with a journalist who might want to cover your program. We will also go over how to get reporters interested in a story you want to promote.

We’ll cover questions such as:

How do you prepare talking points? What questions do you ask them to understand the request? How do you negotiate the terms of the interview? What does it mean to be “on the record” or “on background”? What are journalists looking for in a quote? Are we allowed to ask to review and revise our interviews?

If the story is to discuss students, what can you negotiate when it comes to using students’ names or conviction histories? What are current best practices related to people-first language or photo usage? Who writes the headlines?

How does one pitch a story and what are journalists (and their editors) looking for in a story? What kinds of publications might be interested in college-in-prison news and stories? What makes a good press release, and how should a press release be used?

Pell implementation

Friday April 14th at 1:00pm Eastern.

As the new era of Pell eligibility approaches, there are still lots of questions. Join us to talk all things Pell implementation with Vera Senior Program Associate and BPI alumnus, George Chochos ’10, and BPI’s Director of Budget and Financial Aid, Rupali Rifenburg. We will discuss the recent US Department of Education regulations, what they mean, how to prepare, what various states are doing in response to the stakeholder input mandate, what to expect for Second Chance Pell sites, and more. Please find Vera’s summary of Pell changes here.