The Rising Hope Ministry and Human Services program (formerly Certificate in Ministry and Human Sevices) was founded in 1995. The program was created as a result of the elimination of PELL and TAP grants in 1994. Since colleges had already been in the prisons, there were educated prisoners who knew the “true value of education” most especially for incarcerated students which they likened to “a lif
e raft in a shark infested ocean” and “a blood transfusion to a patient on an operating table.” (1) A few of these incarcerated individuals with bachelor’s degrees had been able to take part in the above-mentioned Master’s Degree in Professional Studies (MPS) offered by New York Theological Seminary with private funding. (now in its 33rd year of existence)
After Pell grants were withdrawn for incarcerated students, prison officials correctly anticipated a huge pullout of participating colleges, which they feared might lead to "chaos." They asked Dr. George (Bill) Webber, former president of NYTS, one of the founders of the NYTS program at Sing Sing, and Dr. Marian Bohen, an Ursuline nun and professor in the same program , to come up with an educational plan to help replace the loss of participating colleges. They in turn turned to the current master's degree class and former grads of the NYTS program for their input. The Certificate Program in Ministry and Human Services (now the Rising Hope Program in Ministry and Human Services) was the result of this synergy of prison administrators, educators and incarcerated graduates of NTYS. It took its name from a similarly named program at NYTS for laymen who want to provide service ministry or do faith-based community work. The curriculum mirrored the NYTS master's degree curriculum in a number of ways and thus could be facilitated by incarcerated NYTS grads along with qualified volunteer instructors (clergy and others) . The program allowed post-secondary education to continue at Sing Sing and eventually spread to six other correctional facilities in the State of New York. (now in its 20th year) Records and transcripts were kept, syllabi kept on file, and academic standards were high. The program is currently administered by Rising Hope, Inc – a not for profit educational organization, and as of 2012, the program as had an articulation agreement with Nyack College (Nyack, NY) which allows students to receive credit for Rising Hope coursework toward a degree at Nyack College.
