Turning Prisoners Into Teachers – A Partnership between EWI and The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation
By: Phil Christian, Executive Vice President, The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation

On a summer afternoon in June 2007, while meeting in the offices of o2 ideas, one of Alabama’s largest advertising and marketing firms, several members of the Birmingham Chapter of EWI Orientation Committee had a chance to meet with the company’s CEO – Dr. Shelley Stewart. Dr. Stewart, a longtime radio personality, entertainer and one of Birmingham’s most successful and respected businessmen, took the opportunity to ask for help in reducing the alarming dropout rate in Alabama and across the United States.

He shared with the EWI members some startling statistics such as more than 1.2 million young people will dropout out of US schools this year alone; nearly 70% of the state prison population is comprised of high school dropouts; 87% of those inmates are functionally illiterate; and the cost to the US economy for just one year of high school dropouts is more than $264 million dollars in lost wages, skilled labor, additional healthcare/welfare cost, among others. He told them he was on a mission to “find a cure for this disease of ignorance,” and asked them to preview a powerful documentary he had recently completed called InsideOut.

InsideOut is an emotionally gripping and motivational documentary that goes behind the prison walls to deliver a powerful message of hope from people who are suffering the consequences of their decision to drop out of school and lead a life of crime. It’s a stark look at prison life – with inmates telling their personal stories of regret for not pursuing an education and graduating. Dr. Stewart compassionately interviews the inmates and unveils their genuine hope to give others the chance they no longer have – to avoid the pitfalls of dropping out of school. Most of the inmates interviewed are either serving life sentences or life without parole. “Think about the impact of 1,000 voices – or even the 27,000 voices inside Alabama state prisons – teaching our children that they can avoid this horrible consequence if they will only get an education,” said Dr. Stewart. “Who better to teach than the one that has learned? Who can show the right road but those who have come down the wrong road?”

In July of 2007, the Birmingham Chapter’s board invited Dr. Stewart to address their membership to formally propose and vote on a partnership with InsideOut and the newly created Mattie C. Stewart Foundation, a non-profit organization named after his mother whom he witnessed being killed by his own father at the age of five. The Foundation’s mission is to create tools and resources to help educators, community leaders and other interested parties motivate young people to stay in school while promoting the importance of getting a good education. The membership overwhelmingly voted to partner with the Foundation and plans were quickly launched to expand the partnership to other EWI chapters in the state.

Alabama’s Governor declared September 21, 2007, Dropout Awareness Day across the entire state, and all Alabama schools were encouraged to show InsideOut to their students – and EWI representatives were there to participate in the announcement. InsideOut has since become the centerpiece of Alabama’s dropout prevention strategy, and EWI members from across the state have participated in many InsideOut related previews and viewings. Building on that success, the EWI membership secured an opportunity for InsideOut to be exhibited at the 2007 EWI Leadership Conference Annual Meeting (LCAM) in Houston, TX. This provided representatives of The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation an opportunity to share InsideOut with other EWI Chapters from across the country.

Since then, thanks to the leadership of the Alabama chapters, EWI members in North Carolina and Georgia have worked closely with the Foundation to host preview events for InsideOut and open doors to the leadership within their communities and businesses. “The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation has been able to accomplish so much as a result of its partnership with the Alabama EWI chapters. Their reach and influence is broad and has played an important role in the success of InsideOut in other communities,” said Dr. Stewart. “We will never forget that it all started with the generosity and commitment of the EWI chapter in Birmingham, and we’re looking forward to working with this incredible group of professional women for many years to come.”

For more information on The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation and InsideOut, please visit www.mattiecstewart.org.