Free-Dem Foundations, Inc.

The mission of Free-Dem Foundations, Inc. is to help our disregarded youth boys between the ages of 8-24 with the critical transition from childhood to adulthood. We engage our youth through community-based education, mentorship, technical and business development programs to cultivate life skills and strengthen ties with the community.

Jerome Morgan and Robert Jones envisioned plans for Free-Dem Foundations while incarcerated in the Louisiana State Prison at Angola serving life sentences. They served more than 40 years collectively before fighting to be released. Morgan and Jones were wrongfully convicted and now exonerated for the crimes that they did not commit. They reunited with Daniel Rideau, another former prisoner as free men and created Free-Dem Foundations. They immediately went to work rebuilding strong communities in the city and neighborhoods where they were raised, and provided special help to the young boys living in these communities trying to escape the snares of crime, mass incarceration and poverty.
Our organization recognizes that young boys, especially black and brown boys growing up in poor communities are subjected to the traumas and disparities of poverty, crime, unstable households and mass incarceration. As a resolution, we engage our youth with peer mentorship, community engagement, technical skill development, entrepreneurship, youth leadership/advocacy and pre-adult transitional services.
Since the organization's inception to this date, more than 300 young boys have been mentored by the organization. The impact of our programs produced two school teachers, college students, business owners and productive young boys in the Greater New Orleans area.

Testimonials

" Free-Dem Foundations help me understand my role as a man, and how to make an honest living. " Corey Anderson

" I am a law student from Los Angeles, California. I first met the founders of Free-Dem Foundations in 2018 when they visited the University of California Santa Barbara. They began mentoring me and inspired me to be great. I relocated to Louisiana to pursue education at Loyola University New Orleans, and continue to assist Free-Dem Foundation's outreach efforts. " K.Y. Tenorio

" Free-Dem Foundations supports so many youth in New Orleans including myself. I attend G. W. Carver High School and learned how to be successful in school and in my community. " H. Williams