This Boston Ex-Gang Member Is Being Paid To Go To College
This Boston Ex-Gang Member Is Being Paid To Go To College
Education initiative 'Boston Uncornered' pays ex-gang members to enroll & succeed, and it just may be the answer inner-city's need.
Education initiative 'Boston Uncornered' pays ex-gang members to enroll & succeed, and it just may be the answer inner-city's need.
As much as we want to do well in school, we need money.
Antonio Franklin
Boston Student and Former Gang Member
Boston is fighting the uptick in gang-related activity by sending former gang members to college; And paying them tobe there.
Antonio Franklin, a 31-year-old former gang member from Dorchester, Massachusetts, is finally going to college.
Franklin spent nine years in prison for assault against a Boston police officer, and he earned his GED while he was still incarcerated. Now, as a participant in Boston Uncornered, he's getting the opportunity to earn a college degree and stay off the streets.
Boston's gang population is responsible for half of the city's homicides and a third of the city's shootings
Boston's gang activity has increased in the past few years--especially in Franklin's home neighborhood of Dorchester.
A quarter of Boston's impoverished residents live in Dorchester. These residents are also twice as likely to be jailed as residents of other Boston neighborhoods.
Boston Uncornered hopes to provide ex-gang members with enough financial incentive to stay off the streets and focus on their educations.
Financial incentives, as a society, we believe are for hedge fund guys, for Wall Street guys. But for poor kids, we suddenly think that’s wrong. It seems to work pretty well for a lot of other industries.
Mark Culliton
CEO of College Bound Dorchester
College-Bound Dorchester, the non-profit that runs Boston Uncornered, is helmed by many former gang members
Mark Culliton, CEO of the non-profit that operates the Boston Uncornered program, is hopeful that the initiative will transform Boston's bad neighborhoods into places of real opportunity.
Many of the program's employees are ex-gang members themselves, and are now gainfully employed and financially stable.
Do you agree with Boston Uncornered paying ex-gang members to go to college?
Do you agree with Boston Uncornered paying ex-gang members to go to college?
Culliton says that Boston Uncornered is not without risks. Some participants have pocketed the stipend money and lied about going to classes. Some simply can't handle the demands of college classes.
Still, he says, the program offers one important (and intangible) benefit: giving participants a second chance at contributing to society.
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