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Recent News & Events

Collaboration with Buncombe County Detention Facility

Fall 2024

In Fall 2024, the Prison Education Program began collaborating with Buncombe County Detention Facility to offer credit-bearing college courses at the facility. Delivery of courses was delayed due to Hurricane Helene, and the first course, HUM174: Creating Room for Many Worlds: An Exploration of Society and Identity through Creative and Cultural Production, began in November 2024. A celebration of course completion, in which students will be presented with documentation of their success and its value in their future endeavors takes place on Friday, February 21, 2025. The course transfers to community colleges and universities as a general education requirement.

Laughing Gull Foundation Grant

November 2024

In November 2024, UNC Asheville’s Prison Education Program was awarded a $50,000 grant by the Laughing Gull Foundation (LGF) to support the program, specifically our collaboration with Mayland Community College at Avery Mitchell Correctional Institution to offer a 4-year degree to incarcerated students.

From the award announcement:

This grant will ultimately support the delivery of academic and career advising support as well as credit bearing classes that build towards an Individualized Degree (BS) in Entrepreneurship, Health and Computer Sciences for incarcerated students at Avery Mitchell Correctional Institution over the course of 3.5-4 years. Prior to delivery of coursework, this one-year grant would fund targeted, integrated academic and career advising, provided by advisors from UNC Asheville Office of Academic Advising and Career Center to students enrolled in the Associates of Applied Science degree in Business Administration at Mayland Community College, preparing them to matriculate into the four-year BS degree program at UNC Asheville and providing students with knowledge and resources to leverage their study and degrees towards employment opportunities post-release.

UNC Asheville Prison Education Newsletters

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