Breaking Cycles, Building Futures: Why Our Partnership with NJDOC Matters

Last week marked a milestone moment for Give Something Back (Give Back). We signed a formal partnership with the New Jersey Department of Corrections (NJDOC) to support children of incarcerated parents with the long-term coaching, academic support, and mentoring they deserve.

This isn’t just a milestone for us. It is also the first partnership of its kind in the nation. For our team, this isn’t just an agreement on paper or another press release to put into the world. It is so much more. It is the realization of a dream that began more than a decade ago.

When I first met our founder, Bob Carr, he spoke with urgency and conviction about the children of incarcerated mothers at Edna Mahan Correctional Facility. He had just sold his company and was determined to dedicate his time, treasure, and talent to changing outcomes for those children. He saw young people who, through no fault of their own, face enormous obstacles to stability, education, and opportunity. Bob couldn’t imagine a more compelling purpose, and he has stayed true to that vision ever since, investing more than $100 million in college readiness, access, and completion for some of the most vulnerable students in our country.

This partnership with NJDOC feels like a full-circle moment. It honors Bob’s original vision, but more importantly, it creates tangible pathways forward for students whose lives have been marked by adversity. And because it is the first in the nation, it also sets a precedent for what’s possible, showing other states and systems a replicable model of hope, accountability, and long-term impact.

Our data show this approach works. More than 80 percent of the students we’ve served are either on track to complete a degree or have already graduated — an extraordinary number considering the barriers they face. Behind that statistic are countless moments of resilience: the student who learned how to navigate FAFSA for the first time, the young woman who persevered through community college to transfer into a four-year university, the young man who found a mentor who believed in him when he doubted himself most.

The children we serve are not defined by the mistakes of their parents or the systems that too often fail them. They are defined by their dreams, their determination, and their right to a future filled with opportunity.

That is why this partnership matters so deeply. Together with NJDOC, we are not only breaking cycles of incarceration and trauma, we are leading the way with a first-in-the-nation commitment to these students. We are showing young people what’s possible when a community believes in them. I am profoundly grateful to Commissioner Victoria L. Kuhn and the NJDOC team for standing with us in this groundbreaking work.