Empirical data shows that public and charter schools serving marginalized communities where youth and their families live in abject poverty are falling short in meeting the basic
social, emotional, mental, and intellectual needs of youth who have experienced severe childhood trauma. Strong empirical evidence has linked poverty and parental incarceration to increased trauma and other negative effects on children. Research done by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, an expert scholar on childhood trauma, confirms that low-income students with adverse childhood experiences like neglect, domestic violence, parental incarceration, and/or a parent with mental illness or addiction, experience significant setbacks in their K 12 educational experience.
Besides children living in poverty-stricken environment, IARC’s next target groups are “Juvenile Offenders,” and individuals returning from prisons commonly referred to as “Reentrants.” There are a wide variety of initiatives geared toward helping juvenile offenders and reentrants. A close analysis of those initiatives reveals that most, if not all, focus on a few key areas, such as providing temporary shelter, teaching money management, or training for specific trades. Turning vulnerable individuals into productive community members is a complex problem that requires a multi-faceted approach to effectively tackle the numerous obstacles that impede success.
IARC intends to tackle these obstacles by:
• Implementing innovative strategies to close the school-to- prison pipeline
• Planning bi-annual international conference on decreasing recidivism
• Designing mentoring programs for students, juvenile offenders. and reentrants
• Partnering with top tech companies and corporations for on-the-job training for students, juvenile offenders, and reentrants in their respective centers.
