Forward Change uses a unique socio-ecological model, the Life Course Framework. This model examines ecological factors, human development dimensions, and institutional milestones that contribute to life outcomes. It serves as a framework for better understanding social problems as well as developing interventions and solutions that will result in improved life outcomes for people of color and low income communities. The foundation for long-term social change remains grounded in policy and systems change, power-building, and grassroots movements.
The School-to-Prison pipeline presentation developed by Forward Change applies the concepts and principles of the Life Course Framework to the pattern of destructive feedback loops that comprise the pipeline from preschool to prison. In particular, the presentation situates the current predominance of zero-tolerance school discipline in its historical context and identifies how the excessive use of exclusionary punishment in recent decades has triggered a cascade of system-driven negative feedback loops that channel young males into the prison system. Moreover, the presentation shows how the school-to-prison pipeline anchors an intergenerational negative feedback loop that disproportionately channels the sons of incarcerated men into the prison pipeline as well. The presentation concludes by identifying intervention points and approaches to disrupting the negative feedback loops that comprise the school-to-prison pipeline.