In today’s episode of the Elevate Your Career podcast, Nicole is joined by Talia Klutch, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Persevere, a not-for-profit focused on resources and opportunities for people looking to attain technology careers post-involvement with the justice system.
A mom of three who spent more than three years in prison is now spending her summer completing an internship at an Ivy League school.
For many troubled teens, a sentence to juvie feels like a sentence to fail. Statistically speaking — it is. 80-percent of juvenile offenders end up back behind bars within three years, less than 2-percent ever enroll in higher education. Prison is their most likely career path. Persevere doesn’t believe children should be chained to their past. The social justice organization has created a coding course, so incarcerated youth can engineer a future outside correctional facilities. It’s designed to turn delinquents into developers.
Persevere’s Nebraska cohort represents individuals who have demonstrated resilience, determination, and a commitment to positive change. Through the Persevere program, participants have received comprehensive support, including technology education, job training, mentorship, and access to resources aimed at facilitating successful reentry into society.
Persevere, a Tennessee-based business, has their coding program in four prisons, in the state of Arizona. The organization works with incarcerated people in four Arizona facilities, teaching computer coding to help reduce recidivism rates, according to Axios Phoenix.
Persevere holds community event to promote wellness and workforce readiness
On Friday, WCI “formally celebrated” the Persevere Program coming to its facility. Persevere is a year-long course focusing on training inmates to become full-stack web developers. It includes life skills classes and the opportunity to get help with transitional housing, according to officials. Persevere launched our Florida classes at 2 facilities at the end of 2023. In March 2024 we had an official ribbon cutting to launch the program. – Source: WCTV News Florida
She admits now that Persevere saw something in her that she didn’t, or could not. She fell in love with coding almost right away and discovered that the problems and solutions-based-thinking came naturally. It also helped her learn to speak again. In her own words: “I was just beginning to talk again because I had been a trauma-induced mute for two years. Coding helped me level up as a human being, helped me develop crucial communication skills.
“I was in a dark, angry place. It was an animalistic time. You sleep with your shoes on there. You step over bodies in the morning. But when I found Persevere – when Josh found me – it was like rocket fuel. I was ready to take off and do something great, if I was lucky enough to get out.” Jason found the classroom experience not only immensely engaging in itself, but to be an escape from “the madness around [him].”
At Persevere, our greatest asset is our staff. Our team cares deeply about their work, our participants and is a wealth of knowledge. Plus they are pretty amazing humans as well. Meet the faces of Persevere.
© 2019-2024 PERSEVERE. All Rights Reserved.
© 2019-2023 PERSEVERE. All Rights Reserved.
