****Hanna Teklu speaks at August, 2015 School to Prison Pipeline event****

This NPR story describes how Together We Bake has helped women who have been imprisoned gain invaluable work experience and regain lost independence. I met one of those women, Hanna Teklu, when she told her story at a forum on dismantling the school to prison pipeline last August at the University of the District of Columbia David E. Clark School of Law, sponsored by the DC Trauma-Informed Initiative and ACEs Connection Network. Teklu went to prison at 18, had a child while incarcerated, and reentered the community at age 27. At the time of the forum, she was a program participant at Together We Bake and is now a program assistant, according to the NPR report. At the DC forum, Teklu said that being able to speak out for herself and others has helped her heal from childhood abuse.
Here’s the article:
Bonnie Rice was released from prison last year. After a five-year drug-related prison sentence, she knew she couldn't go back to any of the people who led her into trouble.

"I didn't know where to go, how to go," Rice says with a quiver in her voice. "It was scary." She was completely alone.

She managed to find a place to live in a halfway house. But even though she filled out lots and lots of job applications in the first few months out of prison, she didn't get many calls back. "People look down on you," she says.

Then she found Together We Bake.
To read the entire article by Allison Aubrey, click here.