What's Next at the Puttkammer Center?

Last year, the Puttkamer Center developed a curriculum to provide the high-quality training and leadership development that the PGP is known for offering its volunteers directly to incarcerated scholars. Inside Tutors receive equivalent training, supervision, and support as traditional PGP tutors, and provide equivalent, quality wraparound support to peers on the inside. Keep reading to learn more as Dr. Benetollo shares more about this exciting new initiative. 

1. What was the inspiration for creating the Inside Tutor Training? 

Networks of scholars on the inside already provide tutoring to their peers living in correctional facilities. They are the backbone of strong and vibrant learning communities that make education in prison possible. But they are doing so without formal recognition, training, or support. By providing high-quality tutor training and leadership development directly to incarcerated scholars and engaging them as tutors in our College Bridge courses, we want to foster existing learning communities behind bars. 

2. What are the benefits of being an Inside Tutor? 

Many of our Inside Tutors are older individuals who cannot access other educational opportunities because they already have an advanced degree or because their sentences are too long. For scholars who will be returning home, becoming an Inside Tutor provides a formal professional experience that can be put on a resume. For all Inside Tutors, the initiative provides scholars a way to remain engaged in education, support younger students, and serve as leaders in their communities. In the words of one of our Inside Tutors, what he appreciated the most was “Seeing young men having no confidence, and seeing them gain more and more confidence, and at the end...win.”

3. How has the pilot been going? What outcomes have been observed so far? Are there plans to make the pilot available to more people? 

The pilot has been going extremely well. We’ve trained 41 Inside Tutors in two facilities, and 7 of them have supported our College Bridge courses. Scholars who participated in PGP tutor training and leadership development not only learned key pedagogical skills, but also reported a 20% increase in self-confidence to achieve goals they set for themselves, and a 30% increase in confidence in their ability to help others meet goals. Building on this success, we are planning to bring the Inside Tutor training to at least two new facilities by the end of the year. We are also collaborating with an educational partner to build pathways for scholars to receive college credit when they complete our Inside Tutor training.