Pipeline to Possibilities committed to educating youth on justice system
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - CBS 11 first shared the story of four Black women using their platforms as judges to reach and change lives of youth across North Texas.
They were featured in a new Apple TV Documentary but Wednesday their program continues to expand.
"Today is our first session of Pipeline to Possibilities, where we introduce them to the criminal Justice system," Dallas County Judge Shequitta Kelly said.
Judge Kelly, along with Judges Stephanie Huff, Lisa Green and Amber Givens are working to inspire the next generation through their non-profit, Pipeline to Possibilities.
They're teaching students everything they need to know from what classifies a crime along with the consequences for committing that crime.
They even include skits to demonstrate how quickly you can commit a crime.
"So, they had an opportunity to see five crimes committed in a matter of four seconds," Kelly said. "Three of those crimes were felonies and two misdemeanors."
Wednesday, they hosted their first class for the new school year and had students from six different Dallas ISD Schools.
They try to be strategic and focus on specific area in Dallas County.
"We learned, before we created this program that area codes 76215, and 76214 have the highest rate of incarceration in Texas Department of corrections," Kelly said. "And we wanted to target those areas and those schools to try to change that narrative, so we can give them the pipeline to possibilities versus the prison to pipeline."
The students were engaged in the conversation, many of them asking questions and taking notes.
"This is really important to us and teaching us things that we should know and that we need to know for life," James Madison 11th Grader, Kamora Howard said.
Students told CBS 11 they learned so much from this first session.
"One of the important things that I learned here today is that every action has a consequence whether good or bad so just be careful whatever you do in life," James Madison High School, Emariah Banks said.
"I'm very excited to see them excited because there means there's hope that we can actually change the world," Kelly said.
Pipeline to Possibilities is a six month program, in which the judges meet with the students once a month. The judges said they've already been requested to do more programs with other schools and other judges in different states have asked for help to duplicate a similar program in their communities.
