Womxn’s Higher Education in Prison Consortium

Image: FEPPS BA graduates walk to their graduation ceremony at WCCW.

The Womxn’s Higher Education in Prison Consortium

Welcome to the home of the Womxn’s Higher Education in Prison Consortium (WHEP), a national consortium of higher education in prison programs that operate in prisons designated for women. WHEP is a collaborative initiative designed to advance equity in higher education for incarcerated women, transgender, and gender-nonconforming individuals. This groundbreaking effort, made possible through the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, brings together programs operating in women-designated prisons to address shared challenges, foster innovation, and advocate for systemic change.

About the WHEP Consortium

Led by the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS), a national leader in providing accredited college programs to incarcerated women and gender-diverse individuals, WHEP will address inequities in access to education, professional development, and reentry services. 

Through collaboration and shared learning, we hope to address the unique challenges faced by programs in women-designated prisons, including limited funding, restrictive policies, and disparities in access to educational and professional development opportunities.

We are grateful to have Christina Dawkins, founder of A4Abolitionist, as the facilitator of this important work. Christina brings years of experience teaching in prisons, building collaborative networks, and supporting equitable practices in higher education in prison. Her leadership will help guide the consortium as we collectively work toward meaningful and sustainable change.

Our Goals

This three-year initiative seeks to:

  • Connect 10 programs operating in women-designated prisons to share resources, ideas, and best practices.

  • Launch a Leadership Institute for incarcerated students to build skills in leadership, professional development, and community engagement.

  • Develop a shared database and curriculum tailored to the needs of students in women-designated prisons.

  • Address systemic disparities in funding and policy to better support education and reentry for students in women-designated prisons.

These goals reflect our belief in the power of collective effort and the transformative potential of education, and we are humbled to play a part in supporting this community.

Our Inaugural Members

We are thrilled to announce and warmly welcome the inaugural members of the Womxn’s Higher Education in Prison Consortium (WHEP)!

  • Freedom Education Project Puget Sound

  • Georgetown University Prisons and Justice Initiative

  • Goucher Prison Education Partnership

  • MVSU Prison Education Partnership Program

  • New Jersey Scholarship and Transformative Education in Prisons (NJ-STEP)

  • Portland State University HEP

  • Second Chance Prison Education Program at Simmons College of Kentucky

  • Tennessee Higher Education Initiative (THEI)

  • The Wesleyan Center for Prison Education

  • UPWARD (Unlocking Potential With Academic Resources and Development)

  • Utah Prison Education Project

Our members represent diverse, dedicated, and visionary HEP programs from across the country. Together, we will collaborate to address the unique challenges of providing higher education in women-designated prisons, including improving access, sharing resources, advocating for equity, and fostering leadership among incarcerated students.

 

This is an exciting beginning. We look forward to shaping our collective mission, vision, and actions together to make a meaningful and sustainable impact.

 

To follow our activity and join the discussion, please sign up for the FEPPS listserv and join the RCHEP group: https://rchep.org/group/womxns-hep-consortium.

“My education is something I earned that can never be taken away from me. It will open doors for me that might not have been there without a degree, and has become an important part of my future.”

-2018 AA Graduate