Upward Globility, a new video series produced by Atlas Network that explores how people flourish when they are free to make choices that unleash innovation and change, will premiere the series second episode, “Upward Globility: A Beacon of Hope,” on June 23 on YouTube.
“Upward Globility: A Beacon of Hope” focuses on how a group of women in the small town of Cookeville, Tennessee are reintegrating into society after incarceration. The Beacon Center of Tennessee, an Atlas Network partner in Nashville, is working with This is Living Ministries to help end recidivism for women after serving time.
In Cookeville, a small town known as the “Hub of the Upper Cumberland,” the recidivism rate is over 86%. In the second episode, series host Vale Sloane ventures to the quaint mountain town to meet a group of women who are completing a reentry program. The women learn basic life skills as well as work on job preparedness, sobriety, and other necessary tools for success.
“It’s a benefit for everyone when we get these reentry programs in prisons to teach people how to be financially independent and how to have the skills they need to get a job once they re-enter society,” says Taylor Dawson, director of outreach and digital media at Beacon Center of Tennessee. Dawson notes that reentry programs can have a significant impact on the lives of former inmates who have trouble reintegrating into the job market. “On the taxpayer level, it’s good for us to save money and be fiscally responsible—but on the individual level, you are changing these people's lives.”
By empowering Tennesseans to retain control of their lives through issues like sensible criminal justice reform, Beacon Center is working with local groups such as This is Living Ministries to identify existing problems within the system, pinpoint criminal justice policies that work, and direct reentry programs to the right resources so that they can continue to expand and serve.
Upward Globility, hosted by Australian adventure traveler Vale Sloane, focuses on stories of Atlas Network partners that are working to create prosperity for all by supporting local opportunities for entrepreneurship, education, and community growth. The series launched on YouTube on June 1.
Upward Globility: A Beacon of Hope will premiere on YouTube at 11 AM (ET) on June 23.
About Atlas Network
Atlas Network is a United States-based educational charity that increases global prosperity by strengthening a global network of independent partner organizations that promote individual freedom and are committed to identifying and removing barriers to human flourishing. The organization’s vision is of a free, prosperous, and peaceful world where the principles of individual liberty, property rights, limited government, and free markets are secured by the rule of law. The network currently serves more than 500 organizations in 98 countries. For more information, visit AtlasNetwork.org.
