College Bound Dorchester

Name

College Bound Dorchester

Legal name

Uncornered, Inc.

Website

https://uncornered.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Violence Intervention Services

NAICS

Educational Support Services (6117), Vocational Rehabilitation Services (6243)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Youth Justice, At-Risk Youth & Violence Prevention Nonprofits (BPAGADAM)

Keywords

• Community violence intervention
• Gang intervention services
• Youth education nonprofit
• College access programs
• Violence prevention services

Headquarters

HQ city

Dorchester

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Private Grants and Foundation Support: Majority of funding comes from private foundations and individual donors. The organization has relationships with Barr Foundation, Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation, Fern Odessa Foundation, Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, NFL Foundation, Players' Coalition, Hall Family Foundation, and many others.
2. Individual Donations: The organization receives donations from individuals and corporations, with recognition tiers for donors contributing over $1,000.
3. Government Grants: Some funding comes from public grants including approximately $1.4 million in public grants mentioned in early program phases.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

College Bound Dorchester (operating as Uncornered) delivers an evidence-based community violence intervention program that identifies and recruits gang-involved "Core Influencers" aged 17–27 and pays them a $400 weekly stipend to participate in 33–35 hours of schooling, tutoring, and work-based learning. The program provides mental health support, spiritual guidance, and one-on-one college readiness advising from former gang members (College Readiness Advisors) to transition participants from street violence to college enrollment, persistence, and family-sustaining employment. Services are delivered directly in Boston, Providence, and Kansas City, with campus offices at partner community colleges.

Product overview

College Bound Dorchester operates primarily through its flagship Boston Uncornered initiative, an evidence-based violence prevention program that identifies and recruits 'Core Influencers'—active and former gang-involved individuals—from high-violence neighborhoods. The program provides participants with a $400 weekly stipend, mental health support, spiritual guidance, and comprehensive college readiness advising to transition them from street involvement to higher education and employment. Services include individual mentorship from former gang members (College Readiness Advisors), GED/HiSET preparation, college enrollment support, and ongoing coaching. The organization partners with community colleges including Bunker Hill, Roxbury, and Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Boston Uncornered (Uncornered Program) Evidence-based violence prevention initiative that identifies and recruits active and former gang-involved individuals ("Core Influencers") from high-violence neighborhoods and supports their transition from street violence to college and careers. Operates in Boston, Providence, and Kansas City through the Core Influencer model.
• Core Influencer Program Tiered program that recruits Core Influencer Leads (6–12 per city) who train Catalysts (81–114 per city), who in turn influence Network Members. Core Influencers receive financial stipends, mental health support, college and career resources, and coaching to become agents of change in their communities.
• College Readiness Advising One-on-one mentoring service in which former gang members (College Readiness Advisors) help Core Influencer participants navigate college admissions, financial aid, and academic success, supporting matriculation and persistence.

Quantifiable outcome

• Boston shootings decreased 40% in 6 years; 2023 had lowest murders in 20+ years
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core, secondary, moderate and minor.

• Bunker Hill Community CollegecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPrimary community college partner with MOU. Students enroll in degree programs; College Bound maintains embedded office on campus with liaison staff.
• Roxbury Community CollegecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCommunity college partner where high school equivalency ceremonies are held and students enroll in degree programs.
• Benjamin Franklin Institute of TechnologycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTechnical college partner for students pursuing technology degrees and career pathways.
• Quincy CollegesecondaryStrategic or Co-development PartnerAdditional community college partner with MOU for student enrollment.
• MIT Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearch partnership to evaluate program effectiveness using rigorous impact evaluation methodology.
• Northeastern University School of Criminology and Criminal JusticecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAcademic research partner evaluating program impact on recidivism and community safety.
• Boston Police DepartmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCity agency partnership for identifying Core Influencers and coordinating community safety efforts.
• City of Boston (Mayor's Office)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerClose partnership with Mayor Walsh and Mayor Wu's administrations; city provided seed funding and connections to private resources.
• Boston Public SchoolsmoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for identifying and recruiting potential participants and coordinating educational services.
• Massachusetts Department of Youth ServicesmoderateStrategic or Co-development PartnerState agency partnership for coordinating services for justice-involved youth.
• PJA Advertising & MarketingmoderateGTM or Marketing PartnerDigital ad agency that helped create the Boston Uncornered brand and the Uncornered Photo Documentary Project, largely on pro-bono basis.
• John Huet PhotographyminorGTM or Marketing PartnerRenowned photographer who created the Uncornered Photo Documentary Project portraits.

Scale indicators15 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Roca: Roca is a Massachusetts-based nonprofit that runs a high-intensity, behavior-change intervention for the highest-risk young men (often gang-involved), using paid programming and long-term coaching. Its target population and methodology closely overlap with Uncornered's Core Influencer work, making it the most geographically adjacent direct peer.
• Advance Peace: Advance Peace runs the Peacemaker Fellowship, which provides stipends, mentorship, and life-planning support to individuals most likely to be involved in gun violence in cities including Richmond, Stockton, and Sacramento. The fellowship design mirrors Uncornered's stipend-plus-coaching model.
• Cure Violence Global: Cure Violence (formerly CeaseFire) is the closest peer: a public-health approach to gun violence that recruits and trains individuals with prior involvement in street violence as 'violence interrupters' to mediate conflicts and shift community norms — the same conceptual model Uncornered's Core Influencer program operationalizes.
• READI Chicago: READI Chicago provides cognitive behavioral therapy, job training, and a weekly stipend to men at highest risk of gun violence involvement — a near-identical intervention architecture to Boston Uncornered and a frequent comparator in the evidence-based violence-intervention literature.

Regional players

• SNUG / NYC Crisis Management System: New York State's SNUG program (originally Albany-based) and the NYC Crisis Management System deploy 'credible messengers' —often with lived experience—into neighborhoods to interrupt cycles of violence. Conceptually and operationally aligned with Uncornered but anchored to a different geography and public-funding model.

Broad incumbents

• Friends of the Children: Friends of the Children is a national nonprofit that pairs at-risk youth with paid, professional mentors from kindergarten through high-school graduation. It overlaps with Uncornered on long-term mentoring of vulnerable youth but serves a younger cohort and does not focus on gang-involved populations.
• Year Up: Year Up provides workforce training, stipends, and corporate internships to opportunity youth (18-24), many from under-resourced urban communities. It shares Uncornered's stipend-plus-education-to-career pipeline but serves a broader, lower-acuity population.
• Youth Advocate Programs (YAP): YAP is a national nonprofit providing community-based alternatives to incarceration and out-of-home placement for justice-involved youth, using paid advocates with lived experience. Comparable in mission and geography of service to Uncornered's justice-involved participants.

Emerging players

• Group Violence Intervention (National Network for Safe Communities): Developed by David Kennedy, the Group Violence Intervention (GVI) is a focused-deterrence model combining law enforcement, community, and social-service messaging to gang members. It is more law-enforcement-led than Uncornered but operates on the same at-risk-youth population and is often implemented in parallel.

Others

• Heartland Alliance: Heartland Alliance is a Chicago-based human services umbrella organization that operates programs across violence prevention, reentry, and human trafficking. It is comparable as a peer nonprofit operating in the same social-services funding and policy ecosystem rather than as a direct intervention competitor.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Uncornered_BOS
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@Uncornered
• Facebookfacebook.com/Uncornered
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/uncornered
• Instagraminstagram.com/uncorneredus

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about College Bound Dorchester