Dawn Freeman, CEO/President of The Securus Foundation, to Present at Association for Justice-Involved Females and Organizations (AJFO) Conference 2019

DALLAS, Dec. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, December 10, 2019, from 3:00 to 4:30 PM, Dawn Freeman, President and CEO of The Securus Foundation, will be a featured workshop leader at the 2019 Association for Justice-Involved Females and Organizations (AJFO) conference. Slated for December 8–11, 2019, the 18th biennial conference is presented jointly by the Georgia Department of Corrections and the Alabama Department of Corrections. It will take place in Atlanta at the Georgia Tech Conference Center.

The title of Freeman's workshop is "A Journey from Black Girl Lost to Technology Leader." It will focus on not only the personal events that led to the establishment of The Securus Foundation but also what spurred Freeman to develop the Exodus Planner (www.exodusplanner.com) platform. Exodus Planner's agenda is twofold: 1) To bridge the gap between corrections, parole and probation, and community partners; and 2) to empower directly impacted individuals by providing them with the tools they need to be successful after incarceration.

"We cannot continue to provide incarcerated girls and women with the same opportunities as their male counterparts," explains Freeman. "Their needs, struggles and challenges, both while in custody and when they transition home, are vastly different. Our mission of connecting justice agencies with their communities using technology and processes that provide a demonstrable reduction in recidivism aligns beautifully with the 2019 AJFO conference's objective of including more women with lived experience."

The Securus Foundation aims to assist formerly incarcerated individuals in navigating the multiple, complex and often daily challenges that can impede their successful transition from incarceration and supervision to emancipated people who can positively experience life. With that goal in mind, Freeman was appointed as the Chair for the newly formed the AJFO conference's Scholarship Committee.  The first-ever six Dignity Scholarship recipients will be among the attendees. These scholarships provide the means for women with lived experience who otherwise would not be able to attend the conference to do so.

In addition to the four scholarship winners sponsored by The Securus Foundation, they are also sponsoring the attendance of four more women with lived experience, for a total of eight sponsorships. Malika Kidd with the Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, a Cleveland-based non-profit; Ashleigh Dowden and Christi Cheramie, both with the Louisiana Parole Project, a Baton Rouge-based non-profit; and Topeka K. Sam, Executive Director of Ladies of Hope Ministries, a New York-based non-profit and keynote panel speaker, will all be taking part in the event as a result of the Foundation's generosity. The Securus Foundation is also providing travel expenses of two essential panelists Valencia Gunder is the Founder of Make the Homeless Smile, a non-profit  and Syrita Martin is the Co-Founder of Operation Restoration, a New Orleans based non-profit to participate in the event along with the other "Navigating pathways to successful reintegration" panelist, Pamela Winn the Founder of RestoreHER US, an Atlanta-based non-profit.

The AJFO conference's mission of creating opportunities to network, share promising practices and advance gender-responsive outcomes for justice-involved women and girls is one that is near and dear to Freeman's heart. It is also one The Securus Foundation wholeheartedly throws its support behind.  Earlier this year, Freeman, along with American Jail Association (AJA)  President, Elias Diggins discussed the importance of trauma-informed and gender responsive programs on the Topeka K. Sam SiriusXM show.  "There are three different tracks that we (AJA) are addressing with Gender Equity in policy, practice and culture: (1), staff, women working in corrections and law enforcement, (2) women in custody, and (3) women in the community,"  Elias Diggins, an AFJO presenter, said.

For further information on the Securus Foundation's support of the AJA Gender Equity Initiative, please visit https://www.americanjail.org/presidents_initiative.

About The Securus Foundation:
Headquartered in Carrollton, Texas, the vision of The Securus Foundation is to modernize the reentry process to increase successful community reengagement. The Securus Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization, formed exclusively for charitable and educational purposes. The Securus Foundation's primary function is to develop, organize, and/or streamline services in conjunction with government agencies, service providers, non-profits, faith-based organizations, community partners, colleges and universities, and formerly incarcerated individuals that desire to establish or improve reentry processes to reduce recidivism across the United States. To learn more about The Securus Foundation, please visit www.thesecurusfoundation.org.

Contact:
Dawn Freeman
[email protected]

SOURCE The Securus Foundation