95% of people living in the inmate population will eventually return to society. Incarcerated adults face several obstacles upon their release, including unemployment and unemployability. Often lower educational attainment and lack of formalized skills prevent those convicted from obtaining jobs with livable wages, thus creating cyclic financial oppression in certain communities and familial hardships that trickle to our most vulnerable. 

 

Correctional facilities offering vocational educational programs have proven that it is a strategy for reducing criminal recidivism and improving economic opportunities for inmates in their transition back to civilian life. The benefits of vocational training programs:

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            ● Significantly reduce the likelihood a temporary jail sentence will turn to a longer prison sentence

    ● More education and training a person has is linked to lower criminal activity and recidivism.

 

Knot Your Average Academy aims to provide an educational vocational training program that provides vocational training in hair braiding and hair wrapping in addition to providing educational training in business basics and mentorship. It is our goal that our students leave our program having learned valuable skills that can help them to succeed when they are released from jail.

 

This means that our program is designed to provide support to our students both during and after they complete their certification course.