Building Opportunity Where It’s Least Expected
A bold idea, early philanthropy, and years of partnership helped create a pathway from incarceration to opportunity.
Photo Credit: Jade Premont
What began as a hopeful pilot in one Vermont prison has grown into something much larger: a statewide effort to create opportunity and possibility for people too often written off.
Back in 2017, Community College of Vermont President Joyce Judy approached the J. Warren and Lois McClure Foundation with a bold idea: what if incarcerated Vermonters had real access to credit-bearing college education while still inside prison walls?
The idea was simple. The implementation was complex. The impact was profound.
With early support from the McClure Foundation, discretionary funding from the Vermont Community Foundation, and six visionary VCF fundholders and donors, the first cohort of students at Northern State Correctional Facility in Newport enrolled in classes through what was then called ReSET VT.
The early outcomes were impossible to ignore. Every student in the first cohort completed their courses and continued their studies with declared majors. Students who had long felt disconnected from their families, communities, and futures began to imagine different possibilities for themselves.
“As a kid, I always envisioned going to college,” shared Cecil, “but I never thought that I would have the chance to attend until I was introduced to CCV while incarcerated.”
He spoke about reconnecting with his daughter, also a college student, through conversations about classes and coursework. “My mother is so proud,” he said, “that I have used my time while incarcerated to change my life and do the right thing.”
Faculty saw transformation too. Despite the logistical barriers of teaching inside correctional facilities—limited internet access, extensive security requirements, and every assignment requiring Department of Corrections approval—students showed extraordinary commitment.
“For the first time in my 20-plus years of teaching,” instructor Heather Weinstein reflected, “every single student did the required reading and submitted every single assignment.”
That early philanthropic investment helped prove concept and give CCV a runway to think bigger.
In 2020, CCV secured a federal Second Chance Pell grant to continue and expand the work. In 2022, federal funding championed by Senator Bernie Sanders helped establish what is now known as the Corrections Post-Secondary Education Initiative (CPSEI), bringing college and career training opportunities to all six of Vermont’s correctional facilities.
Today, CPSEI is the only Pell-eligible college program inside Vermont’s prison system. It serves incarcerated Vermonters, Department of Corrections staff and their families, and justice-involved Vermonters reentering their communities. About 15% of Vermont’s sentenced population enrolls in a CCV course in any given semester. In 2025 alone, more than 175 incarcerated students participated in the program, which also celebrated its first incarcerated graduate.
This impact also reaches far beyond the classroom.
Ninety-seven percent of students report a positive or very positive impact on their wellbeing. Again and again, students describe the program not simply as education, but as a turning point.
“CCV classes have restored my family’s faith in me.”
“This is a huge part of my release plan.”
“It’s all about going home and living a productive life.”
“It’s changed my life.”
That is the power of philanthropy at its best: not simply funding a single outcome, but helping create the conditions for lasting systemic change.
The original investments from VCF donors helped absorb the early risk of a big idea. Their support demonstrated what was possible, attracted federal investment, and helped transform correctional education from a pilot project into a permanent part of Vermont’s educational landscape. To this day, one of the original donors from 2017 continues to support the program annually through the McClure Foundation.
This spring, the story enters another chapter. CCV was awarded a $2.9 million grant from Ascendium Education Group to continue and strengthen the work, including expanded supports for students transitioning back into their communities. The grant will support the establishment of the Corrections Education, Development and Re-entry (CEDAR) Center at CCV, which will provide for the continuation of existing services with a focus on re-entry, academic persistence, and job placement.
When people are given the chance to learn, to reconnect, and to imagine a different future, the impact does not stop with one student. It reaches families. Communities. Entire systems.
And sometimes, it starts with a single conversation and a handful of people willing to believe in possibility.
Learn more at ccv.edu/freedegree. Early College registration for the class of 2027 is now open.
About the J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation
The McClure Foundation at the Vermont Community Foundation works to close opportunity gaps in the state by strengthening college and career training pathways to Vermont’s most promising jobs.
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