Welcome to Project Rebound
Project Rebound is a highly effective, 50-year-old program created to funnel people impacted by the criminal justice system into higher education. With 95% of people expected to be released from prison, it is in our greatest interest to offer opportunities for success rather than to enforce the cycle of recidivism. This effort increases the chance of job security, boosts the economy, reduces the chances of being rearrested, lowers the crime rate, and promotes public safety. A successful university education leads to enhanced self-efficacy, civic engagement, and social global awareness. It also enlarges the moral imagination and instills skills and habits that assist people in securing gainful employment and living meaningful, responsible lives.
We aim to foster a college-going culture and build recruitment pathways for currently and formerly incarcerated people. Additionally, we help prospective students prepare, apply, and matriculate into Cal Poly Humboldt University as well as support students to persist and graduate. Upon enrollment, we will support students’ participation in student life and leadership, community service, and civic engagement. As students cycle through the university, we will establish and foster empowering networks among Project Rebound alumni and students across the CSU system. Learn More
Associated Programs
(Cal Poly Humboldt)
Juvenile Hall's Restorative Program
The majority of youths who are incarcerated have significant histories of trauma and other adverse childhood experiences, and incarceration increases their risk of ongoing victimization and trauma. Juvenile incarceration lowers high school completion rates by 40 percent and increases the likelihood of adult incarceration by 40 percent. Project Rebound, with its collective expertise bred from lived experience, higher education, and the successful construction of a prison-to-college pathway, is seeking to increase its statewide impact on disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline, which derails the educational and personal journeys of so many would-be first-generation college students.
Project Rebound Staff and Mentors are dedicated to providing educational and career pathways for our students currently enrolled in school in juvenile hall. We will cover a variety of topics that eradicate the myths and misconceptions of higher education and how best to individualize the higher educational goals and careers with youth. We will also talk about Project Rebound resources on campus as well as the resources through the Formerly Incarcerated Students Club (Rising Scholars) at College of the Redwoods. Learn More
Pelican Bay's Bachelor of Arts Program
Communication is one of the most sought-after skills desired by employers. Studying communication provides students the opportunity to strengthen abilities in facilitation, critical listening, public speaking, persuasion, public discourse as a means of culture change, interpersonal, advocacy, and much more. Communication graduates get access to careers in business, education, government, public relations, media, and leadership across industries.
Cal Poly Humboldt offers a Bachelor of Arts (BA) for Pelican Bay students who have completed their Associate's Degree. The program is designed as a degree completion program that can support students by offering 60 units of targeted courses to finish the BA degree in Communication. Furthermore, the program began in Spring 2024 with an initial cohort target of 20-27 students. These students were offered one course in the first semester and then offered a full load of courses starting in Fall 2024. The first cohort has an anticipated graduation date of Spring 2026. Learn More
Land Acknowledgement
Project Rebound, housed on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus, is located on the present and ancestral Homeland and unceded territory of the Wiyot Tribe. Tribes and Nations in Humboldt County include Hupa, Karuk, Mattole, Tolowa, Wailaki, Wiyot, and Yurok. We make this land acknowledgment in recognition that our words must be matched by action and approach.
Learn more from Dr. Cutcha Risling Baldy's lecture: "What Good Is a Land Acknowledgment?"