Igniting Hope for Restoration

On Friday morning, February 10, 2017, Calvin College held a convocation at their Handlon Correctional Facility satellite campus. At this convocation seventeen incarcerated college students received their one year certificates on their way to a bachelors degree in ministry leadership with a minor in sociology. 
Students from the Calvin Knollcrest campus joined around a dozen of the Calvin Prison Initiative (CPI) students in a combined choir that led the audience of around one hundred attendees. Attendees of this convocation included faculty members, many of whom have taught classes at the Handlon campus, CPI board members, program sponsors, and others interested in this unique, transformational program. 
Speakers included Mr. Julius Medenblik, president of Calvin Theological Seminary; Mr. Bill K.A. Warners, president of Calvin College's Student Senate; Dr. Ronald Feenstra, professor of Systematic and Philosophical Theology; Mr. Valmarcus Jones, freshman CPI student; and Mr. Kenneth McKee, deputy director of the Michigan Department of Corrections.
The news media, who covered this event, aired a positive news segment that night on Fox 17 news. http://fox17online.com/2017/02/10/students-learning-from-behind-bars-are-on-their-way-to-a-college-education/ 
While much more needs to be done to reform the prison system in Michigan, the positive changes being seen at Handlon Correctional Facility because of the Calvin Prison Initiative and the MDOC's new Vocational Village are a refreshing and hopeful sign.
The outpouring of support from donors who fund and others who champion the CPI program is a restorative balm to prisoners who are too often given up on as hopeless.
Thank you Calvin College! Thank you donors and supporters! Thank you MDOC for allowing this program! Thank you for igniting and fanning our hope for restoration!