Gateways Project

Overview

Project Partner: The Gateways Project

The Gateways Project is a network of projects led by Everett Program students. It focuses on California’s incarcerated population in jails, providing them access to technology, and raising awareness regarding their experiences. This organization was established in 2019 and has been active in the Santa Cruz and incarcerated communities since. California is home to various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, often giving off an impression of a diverse and progressive climate. However, when intertwined with existing oppressive systems and institutions, communities of color and immigrants often face various obstacles and injustices.

Project Description

Tech Tools Used: iMovie

The Gateways Project works to bridge some of these injustices by breaking down barriers between the incarcerated/previously incarcerated community and the rest of society. The main goal of the Gateways Digital Media Project is to encourage and introduce digital media education to the incarcerated community in jails in the local Santa Cruz County community to decrease recidivism.

We hosted a six-week video editing course for the incarcerated community at the Rountree Medium Security Facility in Watsonville, California. This curriculum emphasized experiential learning through a peer-to-peer model and collaborative workflow. Each student was able to utilize a variety of iMovie tools in conjunction to produce a miniature creative product and showcase their mastery of the technology.

Project Deliverables

Our main deliverable was a six-week (twelve sessions) curriculum. Each session of class focused on the different tools of iMovie, such as cropping, editing, filters, and working with sound. These were taught through demonstrations and practice, as well as relevant reading material and handouts.

Project Outcomes

After the six-week course, each student was able to successfully create a project using multiple iMovie tools learned. They were much more comfortable with the technology and motivated to continue using it.

Project Milestones

Our first major milestone was completing the rough draft of the twelve sessions curriculum. Our second major milestone was implementing the curriculum. Our last milestone was completing the practicum paper and project showcase presentation.

Lessons Learned

Heads

The incarcerated community was open and never saw themselves in that space before and the idea of being there and being inspired was good. But in order to reach them, the whole system (criminal justice system) needs reform. There need to be more classes and the correctional officers must take classes themselves on how to treat incarcerated community members with respect. Learning how to treat others respectfully is necessary. Officers in a hierarchical position require communication skills and education on implicit bias and more.

To address recidivism, once incarcerated community members come out, public programs need to be developed upon their release and helps them get into trade school and/or completing job applications if they want to go to school. Employment workshops and learning how to create a resume would also be helpful.

Hands

In terms of it being an effective tool, there are probably more comprehensive tools than iMovie, but it was a great introduction to digital media. For many of the students, this is something they did not encounter. Like Ableton, there is a lot to delve into. The curriculum showed them that they could possibly continue working on and with the tool.

For their families, their new skills might be something to do on the side. As we have learned, hands-on courses for the incarcerated community focused on skills that they could use (e.g., tools for financial success such as Microsoft Excel, etc.) would go a long way. Anything the students can grasp and learn, anything they can use can come out with makes for an effective tool and resource. There were many limitations, but they could use video editing and it is a good skill to have especially since many people can pursue writing and creative outlets through the curriculum.

Hearts

It brought nervousness and discomfort because (being previously incarcerated), but Sammy wanted to be engaged and inspired and ready to teach.

When designing the curriculum, we were second guessing what we were doing and we did not know what we were doing until we had to teach! It took two quarters to figure things out and implement the project. Despite our difficulties to see the end goal because we did not always feel we knew exactly what we were working towards, we put in the work!

We also noticed that we wanted to continue the work and be available to the students and use my lived experience to reach other people. Again, for Sammy, seeing a former friend graduating from college and being in that space is what resonated for him.

UCSC Team

Sammy Chavez (he/him)

Sociology with GISES minor | 2025

Alex Pham (he/him)

Legal Studies with GISES minor | 2024

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