A Curiae

In this clip from our conversation with author Kari Ferrell, she shares the Korean concept of Han—a modern expression of collective grief, identity loss, and the emotional weight carried across generations. For Kari, learning about Han opened a door to understanding herself more deeply. It gave language to the tension she felt between who she had been, what she had done, and who she was becoming. Kari says something powerful: “The point isn’t the severity of what you’ve done. The point is resilience—and the overcoming or the acceptance of that thing.” At A Curiae, this is at the heart of our work. We believe people carry strengths, creativity, and potential even in the midst of struggle. Our role is to help clients recognize those abilities and translate them into contributions that benefit their communities, their families, and their own sense of identity. Because when we focus on resilience instead of judgment, and on strengths instead of stigma, we create space for people to grow into who they were always capable of becoming.

Jesse Agles' career started with learning how to walk into an interview and shake someone's hand. "I don't think I'd be where I'm at right now if it wasn't for Wyatt," Jesse said of A Curiae founder Wyatt Lim-Tepper, who mentored him as he transitioned back into the community through our Conviction Alternatives Program (CAP). Through A Curiae, Jesse built the professional skills he'd never had access to before — resume-building, interview prep, how to navigate a workplace. Today, he's turned that foundation into a career helping youth facing the same struggles he once did, working as an advocate and mentor with New Hope for Youth. Stories like Jesse's are why we do this work. Read his full story on our blog: https://lnkd.in/gy6gF2gB

Mark your calendar: On July 15, the Center for Justice Innovation is hosting Co-Designing Community Justice: Community Engagement, Youth Voice, and Local Ownership — a free webinar exploring how community-led models are reshaping public safety and reentry work. The session features youth participants and program leaders from the Bronx Community Justice Center and Brooklyn's Neighbors in Action, discussing what happens when young people are given real ownership over safety solutions in their own neighborhoods. If you work in collaborative courts, community justice, or reentry, this is worth an hour of your time. Register here: https://lnkd.in/grvKRHYx

Real talk: three years in, and we're still figuring a lot of this out as we go. Last month, we celebrated A Curiae's third anniversary at the Randall Museum with more than 90 supporters, partners, and community members. It was one of the best nights we've had as an organization. It was also genuinely hard to pull off. Nonprofit event planning isn't glamorous — it's budgets that don't stretch as far as you'd like, timelines that get tighter than planned, and a small team wearing a lot of hats to make one night feel effortless for everyone else in the room. And it didn't happen in a simple funding environment. Like a lot of small nonprofits right now, we're building this organization one grant, one donor, one partnership at a time, with no guarantee any of it repeats next year. We wouldn't trade it, though. Three years in, we've grown our services, deepened our partnerships, and built a community that showed up fully that night. None of this happens without the people who keep believing in this work, even when the path isn't easy. Thank you for being part of it. Read more about the night: https://lnkd.in/gBwr3SDy

Formerly incarcerated talent is one of the most overlooked assets in today's workforce. Employers who commit to fair-chance hiring consistently find what many others have already discovered: employees who show up with resilience, loyalty, and a genuine drive to prove themselves. A growing number of organizations are building real pipelines for justice-impacted job seekers — not just entry-level placements, but actual career pathways. Part of A Curiae's work is helping employers understand why fair-chance hiring matters and what it takes to do it well. We offer talks and trainings for organizations who want to learn how to work with the reentry population. If your organization is interested, we'd love to talk. Message us or email info@acuriae.org.

One of A Curiae’s core goals has always been to create opportunities for students to engage with the criminal justice system through a different lens—one grounded in public health, reentry, and human connection. We are excited to welcome our newest summer interns, Hemen Mekonnen and Jayla Peete, to the A Curiae team! Hemen is currently pursuing her Master of Public Health at UC Berkeley School of Public Health Berkeley and will be supporting our Professional Mentorship Initiative. Bringing both programmatic expertise and a public health perspective, she will help strengthen and expand this important program as we continue supporting individuals on their reentry journeys. Jayla joins us from UC Irvine, where she is pursuing a triple major. As an undergraduate intern, she will contribute to reentry research, support our social media and communications efforts, assist with database development, and engage in community outreach initiatives. We are incredibly grateful to our academic partners and professional network for connecting us with such talented and passionate students. Investing in the next generation of leaders is essential to advancing meaningful change in the justice system, and we are thrilled to have Hemen and Jayla as part of our community. Please join us in welcoming Hemen and Jayla to A Curiae!

This Independence Day, we're reflecting on what freedom really means for the people we serve. For many navigating federal reentry, freedom isn't just release from custody — it's the ability to build a stable career, provide for a family, and pursue the life they envision for themselves. At A Curiae, we work year-round to remove the barriers between our clients and that kind of freedom: mentorship, career support, and genuine connection to opportunity. Wishing everyone a safe and meaningful Fourth of July. Learn more about our mission: www.acuriae.org/who-we-are

Starting this week, the path to a new career just got a little more accessible. As of July 1, federal Pell Grants can now be used for high-quality, short-term workforce training programs — not just two- or four-year degrees. For many of the individuals we support through reentry, this is a meaningful shift. Financial barriers have long stood between motivated people and the credentials that lead to stable, well-paying careers in fields like healthcare, the trades, and tech. At A Curiae, career advancement is central to successful reentry. We're watching this expansion closely and are hopeful it opens new doors for our clients pursuing in-demand skills. If you know someone navigating reentry who could benefit from this kind of opportunity, we're happy to help point them toward resources.

A quick update on the July 2026 Community Day: We've decided to hold off on Community Day this summer. Turns out, like a lot of you, our community's calendars are packed this time of year — so we're going to wait for a better moment to bring everyone together. Thank you to everyone who showed interest after we shared this at our anniversary event and in our newsletter. That excitement tells us this is something worth doing right, and we're already thinking about when and how to make that happen. Want to be the first to hear when we lock in a new date? Sign up for our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gFVeUi4j More to come soon!