Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to A Life for A Life Urban Initiative. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, A Life for A Life Urban Initiative thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.
A Life for A Life Urban Initiative (ALALUI) is a nonprofit grassroots organization in Michigan founded in 2013. Our mission is to aid in the ongoing fight against social injustice in America through education, information, and advocacy. For over a decade, a significant amount of our advocacy work has focused on highlighting the gross injustices of the American Criminal Justice system, and sharing the unheard stories of dozens of men and women who have been wrongfully convicted through national townhalls, marketing campaigns, seminars, and virtual events.
As we continued to learn more about the stories of the men and women we are committed to helping regain their freedom through exoneration, we realized that there was an opportunity for us to do preventative work that would target another undeserved population and hopefully help address one of the major issues in Urban communities contributing mass incarceration in America….illiteracy.
Our decision to expand our advocacy efforts to include literacy is based on both the story of wrongfully convicted juvenile lifer and Detroit native, Robert T. Hinds and the latest statistics of the School-to-Prison Pipeline in the U.S. After being wrongfully convicted of first-degree homicide at the age of 17, Hinds has been relentlessly fighting for over 23 years to prove his innocence. Despite blatant Brady violations, police misconduct, newly discovered evidence and growing national attention surrounding Hinds’ case, he is still sitting behind bars in Lapeer, MI awaiting justice. He just celebrated his 40th birthday in January.
When Hinds arrived at prison as a young 17-year-old black male, he was a high school dropout with a 3rd grade reading level. Hinds says that his illiteracy played a significant role in his ability to read the law and advocate for himself.
“I’m from the Eastside of Detroit. I didn’t grow up with people encouraging me to read and education wasn’t what was being promoted in my neighborhood,” explains Hinds.
After being called “an ignorant nigger” by a potential pen pal due to his poor grammar and misspelled words in his first writing attempt, Hinds immediately decided to better himself by learning how to read. His journey to literacy began when he challenged himself to learn his first 300 words out of the dictionary. As a result of his resilience and determination to continue his education, Hinds has now authored 8 published books and is certified in paralegal studies, legal investigation, alternative dispute resolution, victim advocacy, and personal training.
Hinds says, “By encouraging children to develop a love for reading at an early age, they will automatically have an advantage in life. Knowledge is power. The more they value education, the more value they add to themselves.”
The American Civil Liberties Union defines, the “school-to-prison pipeline,” as a “disturbing national trend wherein youth are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal legal systems. Many of these youth are Black or Brown, have disabilities, or histories of poverty, abuse, or neglect, and would benefit from additional supports and resources. Instead, they are isolated, punished, and pushed out.”
Unlearned and unequipped to successfully navigate the real world, the risk of delinquency and a life of crime is significantly increased these youth. Thus, literacy is more than an academic concern, it is a cultural crisis and a community danger.
In 2016, the Michigan Legislature passed a law that requires schools to identify learners who are struggling with reading and writing and to provide additional help. The law states that third graders may repeat third grade if they are more than one grade level behind beginning with the 2019-2020 school year. With many of the black and brown students in public schools in Urban communities across the state struggling academically even more post-COVID, addressing the correlation between literacy and the “school-to-prison pipeline” is at the forefront of our social justice efforts. In 2023, ALALUI created the “Robert Reads Literacy Initiative” to help inner-city youth understand the value of reading.
A Life for A Life Urban Initiative, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
A Life for A Life Urban Initiative (ALALUI) is a nonprofit grassroots organization in Michigan founded in 2013. Our mission is to aid in the ongoing fight against social injustice in America through education, information, and advocacy. ALALUI was birthed from the heartbreaking stories of families torn apart by the injustices of the American Criminal Justice System. As a result, over the last decade, our focus has been predominately on advocating for those wrongfully convicted and supporting their families.
More recently, we decided to focus our resources on three main areas: literacy and creating more awareness about the school-to-prison pipeline, educating the community on the mental health needs for those incarcerated and their families, and providing professional development training for incarcerated residents who will be soon returning to their communities.
ALALUI recently launched a national program designed to help returning citizens cultivate etiquette and professional development skills prior to their release so that they can be more confident and successful when they return to their communities. As such, their chances of acclimating smoothly to the community and workforce and becoming productive citizens in society is automatically increased, which aids in reducing recidivism. The program includes a series of workshops by professionally trained facilitators and master trainers, along with a workbook titled “Etiquette and Professional Development Guide: Preparing for Success”.
In addition. ALALUI has published several literary projects including an educational resources on mental health for teens and a new children’s book literacy series. We pride ourselves on being an organization composed of servant-leaders who strive to uplift and undergird the essential social justice work of our community partners.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
ALALUI believes strongly in collaboration and teamwork. As an organization, we understand the importance and strength of working with other community partners to accomplish a common goal. As such, we don’t view similar organizations as competitions, but rather allies. Over the years, we have built a reputation of professionalism and servant leadership because of our willingness to listen to the feedback of those we work with and to make the necessary adjustments to our administrative processes and systems that allow us to show up as our best every time we enter a space. Consistency is really the key to building a great reputation.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Our team is composed of community volunteers from across the country. One of the ways we have been able to remain effective and maintain high morale is by ensuring that team members communicate openly with one another and often, especially if there is a conflict or misunderstanding. While it is more challenging to build connection with a team remotely, it’s not impossible. We also try to be intentional about recognizing significant events in team members’ lives like birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, etc. to demonstrate that they have great value as an individual and not just in what they contribute to the organization. We strive to honor our volunteers’ time constraints by sending out meeting notices early along with meeting agendas and communicating offline for things that can be done before or after meetings. Our efforts to respect and appreciate our volunteers is how we have retained our members over the years and is what continues to make ALALUI a great organization to serve in.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.alifeforalife.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alife4alifeUI
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeforALifeUrbanInitiative
- Other: A Life for A Life Urban Initiative P.O. Box 6725 Saginaw, MI 48608.