Foundation

This year the PbS Education and Employment Foundation awarded 12 Reentry Awards to young people from Idaho, Nevada, Montana and West Virginia who are returning to their families, group homes or living independently before the holidays. Their application essays show their big hearts, high hopes and challenges to paying for basic necessities. Most needed clothes that fit and are appropriate for job interviews, shoes and a phone card as well as supplies as they return to high school or started college.

Congratulations and thanks to all facility staff, young people and friends who participated in PbS’ first-ever 10K Steps for Real Second Chances Challenge. Together we took 20,654,728 steps joining the national Second Chance Month activities and raised $2,987 to support PbS’ scholarship, reentry and employment matching awards – that’s almost six Reentry Awards we can support this fall. The enthusiasm and dedication of the nearly 200 participants from Alaska to Massachusetts, Maine to Alabama – including 101 young people - was inspiring. Together we showed our collective commitment to provide meaningful opportunities for young people who have been incarcerated when they are released.

I have had the privilege of tracking the progress and stepping alongside all 11 teams who signed up for the challenge and as the fundraiser comes to a close I would like to share for my final blog post a little bit more about myself and what led me to create this fundraiser.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Thank you again to all of the staff, young people, friends and family across the country who are taking part in the 10K Steps for Real Second Chances Challenge during Second Chance Month. An extra huge shoutout to Johnson County Adolescent Center in Olathe Kansas, for being our first team to get sponsored! Every step taken and dollar moves us closer to equity and raises awareness about the need and importance of education and employment equity for young people who become entangled in the juvenile justice system.

We are starting Second Chance Month off right with 10 teams from all over the country already signed up to take the Performance-based Standards (PbS) 10K Steps for Real Second Chances Challenge!

In conjunction with the annual PbS Agency Coordinators Training (ACT), the PbS Awards Night took place in New Orleans on Friday, Aug. 5, with nearly 100 guests donning their best attire to recognize and celebrate each other. Sponsored by the PbS Education and Employment Foundation, the PbS Awards Night honors juvenile justice professionals as well as young award recipients. Am ...

The 2022 Performance-based Standards (PbS) annual Agency Coordinators Training (ACT) took place in New Orleans from Thursday, Aug. 4 – 6, bringing juvenile justice professionals together from states across the nation. Late Thursday afternoon, PbS staff including Executive Director Kim Godfrey Lovett and PbS Deputy Executive Director Akin Fadeyi welcomed guests at a reception i ...

Congratulations to the 2022 PbS Employment Matching Award recipients. Established in 2017 to encourage meaningful work opportunities for young people in the juvenile justice system, this year’s 14 recipients will be awarded up to $1,000 to match their summer season earnings. The award recipients are from the five following facilities: Circleville Juvenile Correctional Facilit ...

The 2022 PbS Reentry Award recipients are inherently unique in their respective journeys toward independence, yet fundamentally similar in what they need—the essentials most people take for granted. Food and shelter. Basic hygiene products. Clothes and shoes. For those seeking employment, interview attire. For future students, day planners and transportation to and from school. ...

Russ believed in change – the ability for failing systems to transform and evolve, the power of leadership to make a difference and especially in the strength of disadvantaged young people to turn their lives around. In 2011, after decades of public service in Kansas as deputy sheriff, director of the Southwest Kansas Regional Detention Center, district magistrate judge and com ...