September 18, 2019
Lightstream
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The Philosophic Systems Institute is a supporting organization of the El Paso Community Foundation founded in 2011. A 501 C-3, also known as PSI (pronounced "sigh" in reference to a complex function in quantum mechanics), is headed by Dr. Juan Ferret in El Paso.
On November 5, 2011, we formed the Philosophic Systems Institute (“PSI” pronounced ‘sigh’ after the 23rd letter of the ancient Greek alphabet, represented in our logo) with the goal to use philosophical inquiry to address fundamental problems in our community of the greater El Paso area. The idea was to develop programs in systemic partnerships to advance positive impacts in our communities. After a series of programmatic pilots and ongoing discussions within research groups—work supported from its inception by the El Paso Community Foundation, one space for open inquiry emerged as a potential educational game changer: the Shadows to Light program (S2L) for people who had been incarcerated for federal offenses. S2L is now, over 10 years later, a recognized humanities-based treatment program that offers a successful space for transformation for returning citizens from incarceration that focuses on developing problem-solving life-skills, critical thinking, and higher learning techniques, including social and emotional skills. It is an integrated component of the Sendero program, the only Federal Reentry program in the Western District of Texas and the Adelante program, and
the first Federal Diversion program in the United States to offer a full dismissal of charges upon its completion. Around 2015, in partnership with the El Paso Community Foundation and a local ISD, we created Artstream—a project that front-ended the arts within elementary schools to foster creativity, active empowered self-learning habits, and the ability to think creatively like an artist or scientist does in their work. In 2015 we added a second research group, which has led to the development of our own logic system ∂∫, Difference Logic, currently used in our learning spaces and throughout our learning and systems programs. In 2020, we partnered with HOME (formerly the Housing Authority of El Paso) to develop Transformative Learning Community programs for low-income communities. In 2022 we aim to start a STREAM Center in the heart of the Segundo Barrio in partnership with HOME, UTEP and EPCC. In 2022 as well, we started the Lightstream program for young adults in partnership with the Juvenile Probation Department, modeled after the S2L adult program.
