IAU participated in the Unified GCC Inmate's Week's events under the slogan “Let’s open up opportunities of hope and work”. The events were organized by the General Directorate of Prisons (GDP) in the Eastern Province for a week, on Sunday 1 Jumada II 1444 A.H. corresponding to 25 December 2022 A.D. at Al Nakheel Mall – Dammam. The University’s participation was supervised by the Community Partnership Directorate in cooperation with the E-Learning and Distance Learning Deanship, as well as, the College of Dentistry.
The University’s booth was honored by the passage of His Royal Highness Prince Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Governor of the Eastern Province, during His sponsorship of the event. His Highness was briefed on the services provided by the university to prison inmates, according to the convention concluded between the university and the General Directorate of Prisons. His Highness also listened to a brief presentation by the Director of the Community Partnership Directorate, Dr. Najah AlMuhaimeed and Dr. Maher AlGhamdi, in which they viewed the university's efforts in this field. At the concluding ceremony, His Royal Highness, awarded the university for its efforts in serving prison inmates in the region.
Based on the role of the educational institutions in developing, enhancing quality of life, and in advancing reform in prisons, the university launched earlier “Islah Initiative”, which is a reform initiative that aims at serving prison inmates by providing several community services within different tracks derived from the university’s specialization capabilities. The exhibition showcased the reform initiative services provided by the university, which come in six different tracks, and includes:
- Launching the House of Expertise “Islah”, within the Consultative Track.
- Providing lectures, courses, and workshops within the Awareness Track.
- Enhancing the cultural and enrichment aspects through supplying and nourishing the prisons’ libraries and linking them to the Directorate of Library Affairs in the University.
- Launching the distance learning project for prison inmates by the Deanship of E-Learning and Distance Learning, which comes within the Educational Track, which aims at providing opportunities to obtain bachelor’s degree for more than 300 inmates.
- Providing several services by the university's health system, represented by the Family and Community Medicine Center (FCMC) in addition to the “Let’s Heal Pain” project introduced by the College of Dentistry with a total of 801 volunteers and more than 13.316 beneficiaries.
