When Project Rebound, the Cal State University initiative that assists formerly incarcerated individuals attend college, came to Cal State Fullerton in 2016, the program operated out of an 8-by-10-foot, windowless office containing a desk, a phone and a computer, tucked away in Langsdorf Hall.
The program was overseen by one part-time director and operated with minimal funding.
Guided by the belief that a college education is one of the best ways for formerly incarcerated men and women to successfully reintegrate into the mainstream, Project Rebound has succeeded to the point where a larger, more visible space became necessary.
So, on March 15, with program administrators, former and current Project Rebound Scholars and CSUF President Fram Virjee on hand, the Project Rebound Center for Hope and Redemption held its grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony in an exceedingly larger, window-laden space bordering a high-traffic corridor in the Pollak Library.
The Center for Hope and Redemption is a space where Project Rebound Scholars can gather to communicate and collaborate, to mentor and be mentored, to grow mentally and emotionally.
“We are in the center of learning,” Cal State Fullerton President Virjee said. “We are in the library … where innovation lives, where the freedom to debate new ideas and new concepts and new approaches to life and changing lives live. We are in the very center of that now. I walk in here and the immediate feeling I feel is we’re home. The immediate feeling is family. That we can love each other and be with each other in this space.”
Since its inception at CSUF in 2016, Project Rebound has supported more than 300 formerly incarcerated individuals pursuing degrees by providing an array of services such as admissions support, tutoring and counseling.
“It’s amazing because we’ve realized that when you give people resources and support, we can change the world, not just ourselves,” said Project Rebound Executive…
Read the full article here
