Blog
Roots of Success Presents for the St. Louis Green Business Challenge
This October, Roots of Success participated in an event as part of the St. Louis Green Business Challenge. "The St. Louis Green Business Challenge is honored to introduce Roots of Success here," says Jean Ponzi, who manages the Challenge and hosted the...
New Instructors: Garden Time, Benevolence Farm, Growing Home
This fall we had the opportunity to train and certify instructors in three fantastic programs to teach the Roots of Success course and enroll participants in our new Department of Labor recognized Pre-Apprenticeship. Growing Home, located in Chicago, is a longtime...
Happy Birthday Paolo Freire!
The teaching approach we use in the Roots of Success program is inspired by the work of Brazilian educator and activist Paulo Freire. Freire’s pedagogy of literacy education involves not only reading the word, but also reading the world. This involves the development...
Roots of Success welcomes Dan Pacholke to our Advisory Board
Roots of Success is excited to welcome Dan Pacholke to our Advisory Board! Dan Pacholke served the Washington State Department of Corrections (WADOC) for 33 years, starting as a Correctional Officer and retiring as Secretary. In 2004, while serving as a prison...
Welcome new ROS team member Shruti!
Shruti Sreenath is the Product Manager and Project Lead for Course Migration at Roots of Success. Her work focuses on content migration and improving user experience for the Roots of Success Online Version. She has a wide range of experience in Technology Management...
ROS participates in Taproot Pro Bono Marathon
Last week Roots of Success had the fortune of participating in the Taproot Foundation's Pro Bono Marathon along with other Bay Area nonprofits Cat Town, Build Healthy Places Network, and Pacifica Spindrift Players. In the one day event, nonprofits tackled a challenge...
Roots of Success Apprenticeship Certified at the National Level
We are thrilled to announce that the Roots of Success program officially received national approval of our Environmental Literacy Instructor Apprenticeship program from the federal Department of Labor this week. Offering our new Apprenticeship and...
Meet the Team: Kathleen
Our impact at Roots of Success depends on the work, dedication, energy, love, and passion of our team, especially our volunteers. This week we are spotlighting Kathleen, one of our Roots of Success en Español team members. Read more to learn about Kathleen and her...
New instructors trained to teach Roots of Success at Pendleton Cottage
Last week we had the opportunity to train and certify three Pendleton Cottage staff members to become Root of Success instructors - Brad Fairbank, Marta Poulson, and Dayna Agee. Pendleton Cottage, in Pendleton, Oregon, is responsible for treatment of individuals with...
Meet the Team: Florencia
Our impact at Roots of Success depends on the work, dedication, energy, love, and passion of our team, especially our volunteers. This week we are spotlighting Florencia, one of our Roots of Success en Español team members. Read more to learn about Florencia and her...
Two New Roots of Success Instructors Trained at Ecotrust and Oakland Unified School District
This June, we had the pleasure of training and welcoming two more instructors into the Roots of Success community. One is Laura Ford, Director of Special Projects at Ecotrust, which is our longtime partner in Portland, Oregon. The other is Sarah Pipping, who works...
Roots of Success Welcomes Matt DelSesto to our Advisory Board
Roots of Success is happy to welcome Matt DelSesto to our Advisory Board. Matt DelSesto is Coordinator of the Inside-Out Program and Teaching Fellow in Sociology at Boston College. He has worked as an educator in prisons and jails for the last eleven years. Matt is...
You have to change slowly, and with a strong commitment: Outside the Wall
The following was written by Grady Mitchell. Grady is a Roots of Success instructor, master trainer, and Board member, and recently joined us as Corrections and Reentry Outreach Coordinator. Grady was incarcerated in Washington state prisons for 37 years and was...
Earth Day 2021: Taylor Lake Cleanup
The following is written by Jaime Armour, who graduated from Roots of Success at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. Jaime was able to return to her community in The Dalles, Oregon in 2019. In these blog posts, she will be providing us with updates about how she’s...