In the News

By Valerie Strauss August 26 Who would pay former gang members to help them go to college? A program in Dorchester, a neighborhood in Boston, is doing just that — and for some of its students, it seems to be working. The nonprofit organization College Bound Dorchester — which works to help at-risk prepare

Matt Jackson, 34, recently wrapped up his first full semester at Bunker Hill Community College in Massachusetts. He hopes to have an associate degree by 2019 and eventually add bachelor’s and master’s degrees to his collection. Jackson got his GED while he was in prison in 2004, two years before

A Boston non-profit is paying gang members in the city’s poorest, most dangerous neighbourhoods to earn their high school equivalency and go to college. In the three-year pilot, College Bound Dorchester plans to keep gang members and ex-offenders on the straight and narrow by offering them a $400 weekly incentive.

The deal: $400 a week to stay in school. Is it worth it? ANDREW ZALESKI On a Tuesday in late May, Antonio Franklin sits in a makeshift classroom in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, ten years to the day after he stepped foot inside Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk to serve nine

Boston Uncornered will help gang-involved youth have greater access to opportunity, according to College Bound Dorchester. By Kristin Toussaint Published : May 30, 2017 | Updated : May 30, 2017 To Antonio Franklin, growing up in Dorchester was like being in the middle of a war. He was surrounded by guns, gangs

Josh Kenworthy MAY 24, 2017 —Tony Franklin was fresh off a 10-year prison sentence for assaulting a police officer. As he walked into court to see his probation officer he was “down and out,” he says. As a former gang member from Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, Mr. Franklin was standing at

By Cristela Guerra GLOBE STAFF  MAY 19, 2017 Inside his 8- by 8-foot cell, Alex Diaz looked at his daughter’s pictures every day. On the prison walls, she remained 5 years old. Outside, she grew taller, older. He spent the first eight years of his daughter’s life incarcerated. His daughter

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYEMAY 13, 2017 BOSTON — A year ago, Kyle L. Gathers, a gang member and longtime drug dealer, was sitting in prison. On Saturday, he was sitting on the stage for his graduation from vocational school, where he was the student commencement speaker. “I lived in a

By Ashley A. Smith May 19, 2017 If college is a key to improving one’s life, one Boston-based nonprofit organization is hoping it’s a key to improving an entire community. College Bound Dorchester, an organization that works with at-risk youth to encourage them to pursue college, on Thursday announced a new program