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The National Homecomers’ Academy

The re-entrance of formerly incarcerated individuals (i.e. Homecomers) into their communities poses a major challenge for U.S. civil society, but it also offers a unique opportunity for rebuilding communities and eliminating the pipeline that funnels U.S. citizens from the schoolhouse to the jailhouse. With the generous support of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Phelps Stokes led a national planning team in designing and delivering a strategy and blueprint for initiating a sustainable movement that can address this new challenge and enlisting formerly incarcerated persons who are returning to community as essential partners and co-workers in creating healthy families, generating strong peer-led support groups, mobilizing neighborhoods and revitalizing communities.

The Phelps Stokes-led national planning team consisted of Timebanks USA, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and a focus group of Homecomers.

From the team's work emerged the concept of the National Homecomers’ Academy, a national network of affiliates and partners that coordinate independent efforts addressing reentry. The strategy is outlined in a two-volume report. The first part, titled Coming Home: An Asset-Based Approach to Transforming Self and Community, recommends the creation of a National Homecomers’ Academy. The second part, Designing the Homecomers Academy: Narrative, Research and Analysis, supplements the first with papers written by reentry experts, relevant excerpts from additional publications and a list of references used by the Phelps Stokes in its design work and deliberations.

The National Homecomers’ Academy will function as an infrastructure for linking successful efforts into an aligned force that can push forward even more effectively on the programmatic goals of its affiliates. To build in resiliency, leverage and impact, the National Homecomers Academy will consist of three parts: a learning network of affiliates, a targeted funding strategy and a national oversight body. In the same way that the American Constitution created three branches of government with different and complementary functions, each of these three elements is designed to interact with, stimulate and sustain the other two. The Academy’s reason for being is to foster linkages and learning, combining the power of networks and the effectiveness of structure.

For more information about the National Homecomers’ Academy, contact Fatima Davis, Manager, Systems and Human Resources, at fdavis@phelpsstokes.org. 

The New Africa Network

The New Africa Network, a joint venture between Phelps Stokes, 5-P LLC, and the African Union’s New Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) will build an underwater fiber optic cable telecommunications network to circle the continent of Africa. The network will make inexpensive broadband capacity available to local communities, schools, governments and African businesses. NAN will bridge the digital divide linking Africa to the rest of the world, drive economic growth and social progress and provide the means to make 15 year broadband connectivity grants to 600,000 primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, hospitals and development projects, governments and non-governmental organizations

For more information about the New Africa Network, contact Robert Henderson at robertc.henderson@gmail.com.

Collaborative for Diversity in Education Abroad

In an increasingly complex and globally interdependent economy, a study abroad experience is no longer optional. We believe having the opportunity to live, study or work overseas is essential to cultivating global citizens who are able to lead effectively on the world stage. Opportunities to study and work abroad enable students to think critically about international relations, understand and appreciate cultural differences, acquire and utilize language skills in a real world context and analyze social, political and economic issues with a wider, more informed perspective. In addition, students who study abroad serve as ambassadors for American culture and values. The face of American study abroad must reflect the cultural diversity that is one of our nation’s greatest strengths.

Yet, the statistics for minority and low-income students who study abroad are appalling. According to the Institute for International Education’s most recent annual Open Doors report (2007) and the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, African-American students comprise 14% of postsecondary student enrollment but only 3.4% of study abroad participants. This rate has remained stagnant over the last decade, even as the overall number of study abroad participants has more than doubled. Hispanic and Native American student participation has also remained similarly stagnant. Though this stark disparity has long been the topic of intense discussion, discussion has not led to significant improvement.

Born out of frustration with the slow pace of change in democratizing study abroad and in keeping with our commitment to leadership development for those who are underserved, Phelps Stokes has joined forces with NAFEO and the Bardoli Global Foundation to create the Collaborative for Diversity in Education Abroad. The Collaborative aims to leverage the combined expertise and experience of its member organizations and associations to develop and implement a common agenda for shaping public policy, sharing best practices, cultivating resources and support, educating the public, collecting and disseminating data and facilitating large-scale dialogue on diversifying and democratizing international education.

For more information about the Collaborative for Diversity in Education Abroad, contact Jennifer Strauss at jstrauss@phelpsstokes.org.