The After Life Initiative is the brainchild of Keeairra and Keefe Dashiell. These siblings grew up in South Central in a broken community with limited access to resources and opportunities to make something of their lives and surrounded by gang violence. The lack of a sense of purpose and hopelessness associated with this environment pushed Keeairra and Keefe to engage in crime, resulting in their incarceration.
While in the system, these siblings found insight in the harm that their decisions were causing to themselves, their loved ones, and the community. They decided to change their lives and make amends by dedicating their energy and efforts to learning how to become productive, responsible, and dependable members of society, and helping other system-impacted individuals to achieve this goal. This decision resulted in the birth of The After Life Initiative, aimed at promoting restorative justice and the rehabilitation, healing, and successful reintegration of individuals released from incarceration.
The After Life Initiative continues to grow and have a positive impact on the community by championing equitable access to opportunities and resources that newly-released individuals can use to advance their lives and stay away from crime. Our organization works with government agencies, local municipals, organizations, and other stakeholders in the criminal justice reform space to provide re-entry services, housing, and facility-based rehabilitative programs to ensure a smooth transition and integration into society for individuals that have undergone incarceration.
We firmly believe that there is some good in everyone, and it only takes courage, understanding, and a strong will to break free from the oppressive mindset associated with growing up in underprivileged communities, find your purpose, and work tirelessly toward its fulfillment. We also advocate for a shift in policies from focusing on locking up individuals to deter crime to creating opportunities for them to be part of building inclusive, peaceful, and productive communities. Our ultimate objective is to give back to our community by enhancing public safety and cutting the pipeline from juvenile facilities to county jails and then prison.
Prevention•Rehabilitation•Reentry
Who we are
The After Life Initiative, aims to promote restorative justice, rehabilitation, community healing, and the successful reintegration of individuals released from incarceration.
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The After Life Initiative empowers system impacted individuals by creating real pathways to a higher quality of life.
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Wherever you are, whatever has happened, whatever you’ve done, anyone can be anything.
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The After Life Initiative is the brainchild of Keeairra and Keefe Dashiell. These siblings grew up in South Central in a broken community with limited access to resources. MORE
Founders
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Keeairra Dashiell is a co-founder of The After Life Initiative with a deep passion for helping system-impacted individuals to successfully re-enter and reintegrate into society after serving time. She was sentenced to 19 years to life at the age of 18 and served 14 years, which gives her invaluable experience and insight on matters involving rehabilitation, re-entry, and crime prevention. She serves as an advocate for women, spearheading rehabilitation programs inside prisons, facilitating re-entry services, and advocating for policy changes for incarcerated women.
Keeairra is currently enrolled in law school and aspires to become a civil rights and public-interest lawyer serving the underprivileged members of her community and helping them to stay away from crime and avoid incarceration. While serving time, she obtained degrees in Social and Behavioral Sciences and American Studies. She became a paralegal and certified peer educator in addition to serving as the the Chair of the Women’s Advisory Council, a liaison program between the prison administrative staff and incarcerated women where she led a team of 16 council members. Today, Keeairra dedicates her time, effort, and resources to changing the narrative of recidivism by ensuring that newly-released individuals reintegrate successfully into society and take advantage of second chances to better their lives and become upstanding members of the community.
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Keefe Dashiell is an entrepreneur, software engineer, and co-founder of The After Life Initiative. In 2007 at the age of 19, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison and served 13 years before California Governor, Gavin Newsom, commuted his sentence. Keefe used his time in incarceration to rehabilitate himself by engaging in self-help programs and earning two college degrees. He learned how to build software and code computers, which enabled him to change his life trajectory from South LA to the California prison system to the tech industry as a software engineer.
The experiences and lessons learned in prison coupled with self-redemption and successfully turning his life around inspired Keefe to join forces with his sister, Keeairra, and start The After Life Initiative. Through this organization, he hopes to leave a significant positive mark and change his community for the better by partnering with players in the criminal justice system to uplift and empower the lives of system-impacted people. His ultimate objective is to serve as a real-life example of overcoming poverty, struggle, and crime associated with living in neighborhoods like the one he grew up in and becoming skilled, productive, and upstanding individuals.
Media
See our work in action!
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