Local hip-hop poet Bomani Armah works with a Free Minds member.
"I'm thinking about some stuff to do right if I get out there
on the streets...I'm writing you about some books... I don't know if
I'm asking for too much, but once I learned how to read, I just wanted
to read even more."
— Antonio, age 18, DC Jail
Supporters
Profile of a Free Minds Supporter
Supporter Profile: Brian McEwen
Brian McEwen, a mentor and supporter of Free Minds since it first began, works from his own experience having spent 17 years incarcerated.
Since returning home he has worked tirelessly to help under-resourced youth. His current project “Crossing the Line,” mentors youth in the D.C. community, bringing together people from disparate backgrounds and neighborhoods. Our intern Sara caught up with Brian recently to learn a little more about his life, and why he supports Free Minds.
What was the hardest thing to stay away from when you got home?
Bad friends trying to get you involved. Try to do something different, say: I’ve gotta make decisions for me. When I started to make it, my friends would say “look what you did!”
Tell me about your Crossing The Line project
It’s a program we developed to be proactive in stopping violence and bringing youth together to empower them. We try to resolve the issue by giving them diplomacy. Everyone has a right to live and a right to be free. We said, youth violence - what can we do differently. No one teaches you how to be a boy, a young man and an adult, so we broke everything down for them so they can know who they are, and who they should be. People just identify them as bad kids, but they have a lot of skills. They know how to adapt and to change.
How would a program like Free Minds have affected you while you were locked up?
The kids Free Minds works with get to free themselves from the entrapment of loneliness. They’re free to explore whole new worlds. If I had Free Minds I would have been more educated. I would have been open to more things that I didn’t even know about. It gives kids the chance to turn the light on. Like I want to learn another language -- Free Minds could have sent me a book on it. I find that when kids begin to read, they get excited.
Is there anything else you would like our supporters, friends and members to know?
We as a community need to provide services so these kids will turn out to be different kids. These kids sell themselves short, because they have no options. Good skills have to be embedded in them. It’s a never-ending fight, working on yourself. Never give up. When you make mistakes, you don’t go back and go back to the old you, you just try again.
Supporters
We are so grateful for the generosity of both the individuals and institutions who make our work possible. Free Minds receives and has received financial support from the following foundations:
Capitol Hill Community Foundation
Collins Riley Fund
Commonweal Foundation Fund of The Community Foundation for the National
Capital Region
Compassion Capital Fund's Communities Empowering Youth Program
Crowell & Moring Foundation
Daughters of the American Revolution (Eleanor Wilson Chapter)
DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities
The District of Columbia Daughters of the American Revolution, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
Dealy Foundation
Fullen-Smith Foundation
Global Fund for Children
Harman Family Foundation
Herb Block Foundation
Jovid Foundation
Lainoff Family Foundation
Mental Wellness Foundation
Morris & Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
National Book Foundation
New York Avenue Foundation
Philip L. Graham Fund
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
Ronald McDonald Foundation House Charities® of Greater Washington D.C.
Snave Foundation
Social Solutions
Spring Creek Foundation
Su Pau Foundation
Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program
World Bank Community Outreach Program
Xcel Energy
Free Minds thanks Mr. Thomas Hoey, Interim Director of the DC Department of Corrections, Deputy Director Carolyn Cross, Warden Simon Wainwright, Administrator for Special Projects Brenda Ward, Reverend Betty Green, and Public Information Officer Sylvia Lane, as well as Correctional Treatment Facility staff Warden Isaac Johnston, Assistant Warden and Public Information Officer Walter Fulton, Reverend Kenneth Napper, and all of the dedicated staff at both facilities who continually support our program. We are also grateful to the staff and teachers of the DCPS Incarcerated Youth Program, let by Principal Ms. Soncyree Lee.
