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Impact Hub Boston invites you to join us for deep discussion around the issue of mass incarceration and the role it plays in the future of Boston. You'll hear from a panel of experts about their diverse experiences with the topic, and each will share a pointed question related to their work. All participants are then invited to engage in small group conversations with these experts in an effort to move their work forward. This is a chance to bring your unique perspective to creatively brainstorm with changemakers in Boston working on this complex social issue.
We are convening a varied group of social entrepreneurs, local government, community leaders, nonprofit professionals, business leaders, philanthropists, academics, and engaged citizens for productive conversation drawn from a wide a range of lived experience and professional experience in different fields, neighborhoods, and sectors.
Join us if you are interested in learning more about, and contributing to, strategic work around mass incarceration, criminal justice reform, and reintegration being done by Boston's public, private, and nonprofit leaders.
Featured Panelists:
Brandale Randolph: 1854 Cycling
The 1854 Cycling Company is a premium bicycle and apparel brand founded in 2016, as a vehicle for poverty alleviation among formerly incarcerated people, particularly women. The company was founded by Brandale Randolph, a poverty alleviation advocate who has written two books on poverty alleviation and gave a well-received TEDx talk at TEDxTexasTechUniversity in 2013. The 1854 Cycling Company has been featured by Bloomberg Magazine, Ebony Magazine, Boston WCVB’s Chronicle, and various other nationally syndicated articles, trade publications, radio shows, podcasts, and blogs. In 2018, we were selected as a member of MassChallenge, in their 2018 Boston Cohort. Our goal is to generate enough traction and revenue to establish an assembly facility that may be able to one day support the lives and employment of formerly incarcerated people.
Janelle Ridley: Boston Public Schools
Janelle Ridley currently works as the District’s Coordinator for System-Involved Youth. In this role, Janelle assists BPS students who are detained within the Department of Youth Services, and those who are remanded to the custody of the Department of Children and Families.
Prior to Janelle working for the District, Janelle was a teacher at East Boston High and worked with her students to create the first known high school charter of the NAACP. Janelle attributes much of her relationship building skills and ability to understand the young people she works with to her time as a social worker for the Department of Children and Families. Janelle was an ongoing case worker for four years and her last two years as an adolescent worker.
Janelle serves on a variety of boards both county wide and statewide that deal with juvenile justice. She currently co-chairs the Suffolk County Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI) is a member of the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee (JJAC) where she co-chairs the Disproportionate Minority Committee DMC) and is chair of the newly developed Youth Committee. Janelle co-chairs the Boston Public Schools Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline (DSTPP) and has recently joined The Boston Bars new committee on the School to Prison Pipeline.
Cris Gilmore: Benjamin Franklin
Cristal Gilmore is currently in his first year at Benjamin Franklin, where he is pursuing a concentration in Construction Management. Cristal, who goes by Cris, is a former detainee of the Department Of Youth Services, as well as, a product of systemic opposition for boys of color. Cris recently graduated from Urban Science Academy despite the challenges and setbacks that presented as barriers to his success. Cris is focused on choosing different paths, being an example to other young men, and is highly motivated to work with others on education, discussing what the school to prison pipeline actually looks like from a system-involved youth perspective, and the impact it makes on young people. Cris has led discussions at Universities to undergrad students who are pursuing a degree in Criminal Justice, Education, or Law. Cris recently worked with the Boston Public Schools this past summer to facilitate conversations with new teachers on how to best engage with the students in front of them, obstacles they may encounter with young people who have been typically labeled, and profiled, and how best to navigate some of those challenges. Although he is working towards his management degree, Cris is passionate about educating those on the justice system, and the ripple effect it causes and hopes to use his expertise to create the necessary platform for all young people who have been system-involved.
Adam Foss: Prosecutor Impact
Adam J. Foss is a former Assistant District Attorney in the Juvenile Division of the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office (SCDAO) in Boston, MA, and a fierce advocate for criminal justice reform and the importance of the role of the prosecutor in ending mass incarceration. Mr. Foss believes that the profession of prosecution is ripe for reinvention requiring better incentives and more measurable metrics for success beyond, simply, “cases won” leading him to found Prosecutor Impact - a non-profit developing training and curriculum for prosecutors to reframe their role in the criminal justice system.
During his nine years as a prosecutor, Mr. Foss collaborated with the courts and the community to develop programming that continues to have a positive impact on the neighborhoods he prosecuted in. In 2018, he was featured in CNN’s documentary “American Jail,” and in 2017 the Mandela Foundation named him Nelson Mandela Changemaker of the Year.
True-See Allah: Suffolk County Sheriff's Department
True-See S. Allah is the Assistant Deputy Superintendent of Reintegration for the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department (SCSD) in which he’s been active since 2000 having served as a mentor/case manager, and Coordinator until September 2006. In his current capacity, he directs a team of Directors and Case Managers who work with men at the Suffolk County House of Correction transitioning from incarceration to responsible citizenship through employment, housing, parenting, schooling, substance abuse treatment and vocational training.
Prior to his current appointment with the SCSD, Mr. Allah worked for Action for Boston Community Development, Inc. (ABCD) as its first-ever coordinator of Operation Re-Entry, a program of ABCD’s South End Neighborhood Action Program (SNAP). Under his leadership weekly support group meetings were established to provide holistic programming for formerly incarcerated men and women seeking additional resources and support. He also managed a granted funded partnership with Boston Connects, Inc.
He is the recipient of several awards which have honored his work in the field of re-entry. Most recently, he received national recognition with the 57th Attorney General’s Award for Public Safety for his role in the success of the Boston Re-Entry Initiative.
Mr. Allah, a Boston native, is a member of the board of directors of the Whittier Street Health Center and graduate of Lead Boston (Class of 2009).He was born and raised in Boston.
Oren Nimni: Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice
Oren Nimni is a Staff Attorney at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights where he manages their immigrants' rights and criminal justice docket. Hislegal practice focuses on cutting-edge constitutional litigation on behalf of people of color and immigrants and is currently litigating the first lawsuit filed in the country against the Trump Administration to save TPS on behalf of Haitian, Honduran and Salvadoran immigrants. Oren also teaches at Suffolk University Law School and serves as legal editor for the popular political magazine Current Affairs.
Stacey Borden: New Beginnings Reentry
Stacey Borden, M.Ed., LADC l, Founder and President, has a Master’s Degree in Mental Health Counseling with a Concentration in Addictions and Trauma. She is Founder and President of New Beginnings Reentry Services, Inc. Stacey is an author, performance artist, motivational speaker and an activist. She has been on several panel discussions about the criminal justice system and on how the prison system and mass incarceration has impacted women and families of color. Stacey has also been a guest lecturer at Berklee College of Music and her story inspired students to do their final project on mass incarceration. Stacey is a proponent of Drama Therapy with an empathetic value in the individual from trauma and addictions. She is currently a Board member with OWLL (On With Living and Learning) Productions, a non-profit organization. OWLL works with formerly incarcerated women in dynamic workshops that incorporate reading, writing, storytelling and active listening to build imperative life and job skills. Through storytelling, they work through challenging pasts, creating art that is healing for the individual, while building self-esteem and developing skills that will enable successful reentry to society. Stacey Borden, formerly incarcerated is a member of The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls and a member of the NAADAC (The Association for Addiction Professionals).
This event is a part of ImpactFest, our annual celebration of our community’s impact, of the strength of our social impact ecosystem in Boston, and of our fifth birthday as Impact Hub Boston. Learn from current members, Impact Hub alum, and other local social entrepreneurs about their work on pressing social and environmental issues and lessons from their entrepreneurial journeys. Contribute your skills to projects making a better Boston at Open Project Night. Discuss critical issues of our times and the roles we have in resolving them. Celebrate our fifth birthday as a community and home for social impact in Boston, and help imagine the local issues we might work together to tackle into the future. Build your network into a community.
Join us: October 1-10, 2018.