Rebuilding the Community from within the Community
Strategic Collaboration by UBFSF Founder Ivan Kilgore. LEARN MORE →
From Prison Cells to the State Capitol: How Incarcerated Voices Reshape Nonprofit Advocacy By Ivan Kilgore An inside-out perspective on lived experience, storytelling, and nonprofit advocacy For more than 26 years, I have lived inside a system that has often tried to...
Systems Can Change Through Storytelling By Timmy Young Systems do not change simply because people recognize problems. Systems change when people see themselves inside the solution. Storytelling creates that bridge. It connects information to emotion, vision to...
Why Philanthropy Must Start Investing in the People Behind Prison Bars By Glenn E. Martin Walk into almost any prison in America and, if you know where to look, you’ll find something philanthropy has been searching for: talent. We lock up some of America’s best and...
From Sundance to San Quentin: Cori Thomas By Isabella Cain, UBFSF Media & Marketing Director When playwright and advocate Cori Thomas first walked through the halls of San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (formerly San Quentin State Prison), she carried assumptions...
"Community, Culture, and Healing" By Tavia ‘Tay’ Pennington “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” While this proverb expresses a sentiment of growth beyond individuality, it can get lost in theory when a community is choked by...
Claims that Trump or the Executive Office of the President has canceled Black History Month appear to stem from a post from Mark Zaid, a prominent lawyer in Washington, D.C., who has represented federal government employees and whistleblowers. In an X post on Jan. 23,...
Lessons Learned Through Life, Service & Building People By Timmy Young Healing does not begin in buildings. It begins in people. I’ve learned through experience that communities don’t collapse overnight, and they don’t heal overnight either. Healing starts when...
Reclaiming Our Humanity: Community, Culture, and Healing By Ivan Kilgore For much of my younger life, I believed crime was primarily the result of individual choices. I accepted the common narrative that if people simply made better decisions, our communities would...
What Change Means on the Inside By Ivan Kilgore People often ask whether people can truly change in prison. It’s a fair question, but I believe it’s the wrong one. The better question is : What does change actually look like on the inside ? For many people, change is...
A Tool in Your Hands AI will not save anyone. But in the right hands, used for the right reasons, it can help a person save themselves. Here is what that looks like behind the wall. By Gregory Ringler There is more being written about artificial intelligence right now...
Inside Leadership, Outside Impact By Isabella Cain One of the most overlooked employment pathways for formerly incarcerated individuals begins long before release. It starts inside prison, where individuals take on leadership roles in educational programs, peer...
For a long time, I felt like my life story had already been written for me. Like many formerly incarcerated people, I returned home carrying more than a criminal record. I carried shame, anger, and the overwhelming understanding that society often expects people like...