on seeking grants

A team of three Grand Valley State University students has been assigned to seek grant money for HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS, it was announced today by Professor Diane Kimoto of GVSU’s Grant Writing Class. The 501c3 agency is based in Grand Haven, Michigan. Professor Kimoto said that the students will be writing grants on behalf of HFP at both the state and national level.

HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS, formerly known as INNOCENT, was founded in 2001 by Doug Tjapkes, of Spring Lake, Michigan. At that time, he was part of a team hoping to free the late Maurice Carter from prison. Carter served 29 years behind bars for a shooting that injured an off-duty police officer in Berrien County, and still claimed he was innocent at the time of his death five years ago.

HUMANITY FOR PRISONERS operates an advocacy program for the incarcerated, dealing with issues of alleged wrongful conviction, care for the medically and physically ailing, assistance for inmates eligible for parole, and assistance for inmates facing death.

Tjapkes, former owner of WGHN in Grand Haven, is the author of the book SWEET FREEDOM, and serves as a staff musician at Ferrysburg Community Church, located in Ferrysburg, Michigan.

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