Oct. 23. To a warm crowd at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Washington DC, LearnServe alumni Yasmine Arrington and Niacka Carty introduced ScholarCHIPS, their new organization designed to raise college scholarship funds for children of incarcerated parents. They announced their first year’s goal: to award three $10,000 scholarships to three graduating high school students from the DC region, for them to use towards their fall 2011 tuition.
Yasmine, a high school student at Banneker (DCPS) and herself the daughter of an incarcerated father, explains that “teens with incarcerated parents, they fall into the same trap. They’ll end up in juvenile detention or they won’t have a desire to go to college.”
Niacka, a student at Central High School in Prince George’s County, MD, and Yasmine both shared research that has shown:
- 1 in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison
- African American children are 9 times more likely than white children to have a parent in prison
- Parental incarceration adds additional financial instability and material hardship to already vulnerable families
Aaron Jenkins of Operation Understanding DC and Dr. Yvonne M. Cooper of Missing Link Ministries spoke of the particular challenge that children of incarcerated parents face. LearnServe Fellows (2010) alums Rachel Lyle and Ellie Olsen MC’d the celebration, and Skyla Symone offered the song “Prayer to You.”
Yasmine and Niacka founded ScholarCHIPS through their participation in the LearnServe International Fellows Program (Class of 2010). They received $1000 seed funding through LearnServe International and its partner organization Youth Venture to launch their program. ScholarCHIPS has partnered with the Girl Scouts and with Fearless Future to market and spread awareness of the organization’s mission.