Campus News

Hickey honored with Law Day Award for collaboration with Pre-Release

Tammie Hickey, director of Great Falls College MSU’s Lifelong Learning program and Great Falls Public Schools’ Career and College Readiness Center, receives the Law Day Award from Alan Scanlon, executive director of Great Falls Pre-Release Center.

GREAT FALLS – Tammie Hickey, director of Great Falls College MSU’s Lifelong Learning program and Great Falls Public Schools’ Career and College Readiness Center, has been selected as the recipient of the Great Falls Pre-Release Center’s 2022 Law Day Award.

“It’s a real honor to be selected,” Hickey said. “But I share this recognition with my team and everyone else in our community who is at the table being part of solution-based conversations that create positive, impactful changes. It truly takes all of us.”

Hickey and her team work with the Pre-Release Center helping their residents as they transition through and from the criminal justice system to workforce or education.

For instance, some residents may begin doing the work to receive their high school equivalency diploma while some enroll in the Career and College Readiness Center’s Connections 101 Program which helps prepare them for short-term trainings, apprenticeships, degree seeking programs or job placement.

“Our program works closely with community partners to ensure residents have the resources they need as they transition out of the Pre-Release.” Hickey said. “We’ve even celebrated some of these residents accomplishing degrees and walk across the stage here at Great Falls College. That is life changing for them.”

The Great Falls Pre-Release Center has been offering re-entry services to those making the transition from incarceration to living in the community since 1984, and it has been giving Law Day awards to individuals or organizations demonstrating exceptional achievement in various fields such as corrections, education, law enforcement and community support since 2005.

A release from the Pre-Release Center stated, “We are very aware that we do not, and cannot, do this alone. It is only with the help of our many friends in the community that we can provide this chance for change for our residents.”

“The magic of our program is creating choices, improving chances, and motivating changes for everyone who walks through our doors. Empowering them to see beyond their current circumstances, challenge their current belief system and rewrite their narrative is impactful. Everybody’s journey is so different, and when they come through our door, “We’re like, OK where are you now? What are your goals? And let’s do this,’” Hickey said.