Recent History
During the first three years of operation, CCF focused intensively on providing tuition assistance, academic counseling, and mentoring to CCF fellows as they pursue their degrees. Each CCF fellow receives a $600 stipend per semester. This makes a difference for the vast majority of CCF fellows who are raising children and facing other financial obligations while they work and pursue degrees. Mentors supply academic motivation and career advice, as well as assist with the overall adjustment to academic life. Students seeking additional support receive referrals to agencies that specifically offer re-entry services related to housing, mental health, substance abuse treatment, financial support, family reunification, and employment.
Having successfully worked on the educational mission of CCF, in 2002 the program began to focus on the other aims of its mission. Because we understand the barriers and challenges women with criminal convictions face, and because we exist within the university, CCF also works to create a supportive and committed community environment in which women can openly strategize about how to challenge those barriers and find support and guidance in the process. Specifically, we have elected several CCF students and graduates to be members of CCF's Board of Directors and we have organized three leadership and advocacy projects: Community Leadership and Education After Reentry (CLEAR), The Speaker's Bureau, and The Theatre for Social Change.
Finally, CCF continues to serve as a nexus of information and resources related to the impact of higher education on the prison and post-prison experience. In close collaboration with the Center for the Study of Women and Society (CSWS) at the
Graduate
Center, under the direction of Professor Anne Humphreys, and with academics from the departments of Sociology, Psychology, and Urban Education who are members of its board of directors, CCF engages in public education and advocacy through research, seminars, and conferences.
