This is Ivan Kilgore, founder of the United Black Family Scholarship Foundation, speaking to you from behind the walls of a medium security prison in California. I’ve been incarcerated for 25 years serving a life without the possibility of parole sentence, and yet, from this place of confinement, I’ve built something. Something that’s now bigger than me.
In 2014 I founded the UBFSF from a prison cell. Today, our organization has grown into a national and an international movement. We work with universities, students, volunteers across the United States, and now, we’re expanding to France. What we do is simple, but it’s powerful. We develop programs and policies that address the root causes of systemic poverty and racism, and we’re inviting you to join us. We’re not just another nonprofit. We’re a resistance, a school, and a vision. Our Hundred Stories Project captures the voices of incarcerated youth and adults to reshape the narrative about justice in America and France.
Our Rebuild Community Reinvestment Program is training our youth to take back our neighborhoods through real estate, financial literacy, and civil engagement. Our nonprofit coaching and leadership training is preparing incarcerated men and women to come home: not just to survive, but to lead. To lead as CEOs, organizers, and change makers. We are not just waiting on these politicians anymore. Well, we are not waiting on the saviors. We are building our own, and in this political climate where rights are being rolled back and prisons are booming and poverty is being criminalized, we don’t have the luxury of waiting.
If you’re a student, an educator, artist or writer, lawyer or just someone who wants to help, we have a place for you. So, our volunteers opportunities, well, they’re going to challenge you, they’re going to teach you, and they’re definitely going to empower you. This is more than just community service, ladies and gentlemen; this is about learning to fight systemic injustice at the root. So visit our website, ubfsf.org, to sign up. Again, that’s “u” as in unicorn, “b” as in boy, Fred, Sanford, “f”, organization. Click on Volunteer Today. This is Ivan Kilgore, and while I may be physically confined, my vision and our mission is limitless. So, be part of the movement. Join us today.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
