Join ACS, CLS, and YEA for a talk on James Forman’s and David Domenici’s work founding and operating the Maya Angelou Schools in Washington, D.C.

Lunch will be served. Please RSVP here.

The Maya Angelou Schools include Maya Angelou Public Charter, an alternative school providing wrap-around services for school dropouts and youth who have previously been arrested; Maya Angelou Academy at the New Beginnings Youth Development Center (formerly Oak Hill Detention Center), a school located within a juvenile detention facility; and Maya Angelou Young Adult Learning Center, which provides academic and workforce development to older youth/young adults, ages 17-24, who do not have a high school credential, and particularly those transitioning from incarceration.

The network of schools was started in 1997 by then-public-defender James Forman and then-corporate-lawyer David Domenici in response to their frustration with the lack of education and job training opportunities for Forman’s clients. Since its founding, the school has dramatically improved high school graduation rates, increased career and college preparedness, and reduced recidivism rates among its students. The court monitor overseeing D.C.’s juvenile system called the turnaround at Oak Hill “extraordinary.”

James Forman is a visiting professor from Yale Law School. James is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School.

David Domenici is an Ashoka and Echoing Green Fellow and Director of the Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings. David is a graduate of Stanford Law School and the University of Virginia.