Clark pushes expansion of anti-gang college initiative
Exactly three years ago, the mother of Matt Jackson’s daughter was shot and killed in Boston. The tragedy was a wake-up call for Jackson, who was 30 and had already done hard time.
Jackson, now 33 and living in Jamaica Plain with his daughter, said he first joined a gang when he was just 13 years old. He was incarcerated before his 18th birthday.
It wasn’t until he became a single father that he found a way to turn his life around through College Bound, Dorchester’s Boston Uncornered program that helps former gang members go to college.
The program could serve as a model for decreasing gang violence across the country, said U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, a Democrat from Melrose.
“I’m enjoying coming to school, my daughter, she sees me going to school,” said Jackson, who’s completing his second semester at Bunker Hill Community College thanks to a $20,000 stipend from the group.
He’s one of 36 students in Boston who received money through the program to pursue degrees full time.
Clark met with the program’s directors and students yesterday to see whether it could be replicated to decrease gang violence in other cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles.
“We’re looking, in a Congress that often gets bound up in ways to address gun violence, for some different kinds of solutions that we can build broad support for, and this program to me really seems to bring that change,” Clark said.
Boston Uncornered is less than six months old, but four students have already graduated from college certificate programs, and two are moving on to pursue two-year degrees.