U.S. Dream Academy Opens Doors of USA Funds-Supported Learning Center in Indiana

The 11th U.S. Dream Academy Learning Center opened its doors Feb. 25 at John Marshall Middle School in Indianapolis. USA Funds^® awarded a $100,000 grant to support the opening of the new center.

Over the past four years, USA Funds has awarded $500,000 to support the U.S. Dream Academy. The organization’s learning centers provide online, values-based, interactive, tutorial and remedial after-school education programs. The programs target children of prisoners and those children in danger of school failure due to a lack of proper academic, social and financial support.

Children in the program work on areas in which they are struggling academically, and meet with an individual mentor once a week after school. Teachers and principals refer students who need assistance to the learning centers.

“USA Funds truly believes in the work the U.S. Dream Academy is doing,” says Carl Dalstrom, USA Funds president and CEO. “These centers are providing the resources for students to dream of a future that includes a postsecondary education. We are not only pleased to support the U.S. Dream Academy on a national level, but also to have this valuable resource in our own city.”

OneAmerica also will provide financial support for the center, as will the Pacers Foundation. Indiana’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and Eastern Star Church in Indianapolis also are supporting the program.  

Whitley Phipps, a Grammy-nominated gospel artist, founded the U.S. Dream Academy in 1998. A day before the center’s opening, Phipps performed at a benefit concert in Indianapolis for the U.S. Dream Academy, raising $3,000 for the center.

Phipps began singing in prisons and saw that many of those prisoners were young African- American men. Statistics show that two-thirds of men in prison come from families with a family member in prison, or families with a long history of incarceration. It was then that he realized the way to break the cycle is to increase the number of caring, loving adults through mentoring, and interactive tutorial and academic support.

“All children deserve and desire a chance to succeed,” says Phipps. “We have to do all we can to help guarantee that children of prisoners and at-risk youth have a brighter future. Eliminating the barriers to a good education is the first step in helping a child to succeed.”

John Marshall Middle School’s vision of education is to take at-risk students and transform them into students who have opportunities.

The U.S. Dream Academy operates 10 other centers in the following areas:

• Baltimore.
• Washington, D.C.
• East Orange, N.J.
• Memphis, Tenn.
• Salt Lake City.
• Houston.
• Orlando, Fla.
• Philadelphia.
• Los Angeles.