“SPEAK helps build confidence and it helps to lift people up."

-SPEAK Student, Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility 

To date, SPEAK has provided multiple programs at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, Vermont's sole all-female facilty, and taught at the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center.  SPEAK's program participants generate and research their own debate topics and work closely with SPEAK volunteers to construct persuasive arguments defending their position. Each program culminated in a public debate where students present their arguments in front of an audience, receive certificates of acheivement, and celebrate their growth and accomplishments throughout the program. 

In reflecting upon their time working with SPEAK, participants at the Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility explain that said the training has given them confidence and helped them in mock job interviews in preparation for when they are released. “SPEAK helps build confidence and it helps to lift people up,” said one woman at CRCF. “There is a huge stigma around criminals. We wear a scary face. SPEAK drastically helps to soften that mask." Another inmate said she was “impressed and proud of her fellow inmates. They proved how smart they are and how knowledgeable they were on their debate subject.”

Kris Hoffman, educational services supervisor at the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, says programs like SPEAK that provide authentic learning opportunities are especially important to students at Woodside. 

“It is brutal to live in a juvenile facility,” Hoffman says. “Because our youth have histories of prior school failure and poorly developed communication skills, programs like SPEAK are crucial to helping them build critical thinking skills and develop empathy by understanding more than one perspective.”