How do you believe your unique perspective as an incarcerated individual can enhance your contribution to the nonprofit sector and address social issues effectively? Well, my answer for that will be as follows.
I believe that I have a unique perspective because I have experienced and to some degree, am product of some of society’s ills. And being able to empathize and also relate to what those ills are, uniquely empowers me and makes me able to effectively address them.
In regard to the avenue of going nonprofit, the nonprofit sector has been one of the most powerful impact – impactors – of society’s ills. And so I believe that the structure of nonprofits is necessary in order to be able to get the message out in a more complete and broad range. Myself as an individual, and being able to relate to these situations, I have been living in to situations with a social ills and body. And so being a part of having that experience as a part of my, my history, it allows me to be able to talk to these people and relate to ’em in a way where we can extract what they actually need, where we’re able to extract what the remedy is, and how we can best serve them.
Now, society’s ills cover a wide range of dysfunctions. And I think that the, the, the negative aspects of that is important to address by people who have the ability to speak to ’em directly, but also have that experience, you know, it’s said’ that experience is the best teacher. I believe that when people know that you can relate to ’em, then they open up. So when they know that a person has been where they’ve been such as I have, then I think that that will allow me an, an inroad to their problems, and they will open up and kind of give me that, that, that feedback that we need in order to be able to help them improve their condition.
And I think that this me being incarcerated and having suffered some of the same pitfalls and obstacles but haven’t been fortunate enough to overcome them, allows me to empathize with them, but also give them some solutions in regard to improving their conditions, and the nonprofit sector being the most effective way to do this. And me being able to work through that avenue, I believe, is what really uniquely allows me to be effective in that situation.
Regarding the acquisition of skills within our program, how do you perceive these skills, aiding in your reentry and success back into society? Regarding the actual acquisition of skills, for me, is the key component to this question. And I say that because when we’re doing time and we’re incarcerated, the majority of us who have decided to turn our life in a proper direction, start to envision and start to imagine ourselves being able to accomplish things that would help the situation of others, that would improve the situation of others.
But one of the pitfalls and one of the common hurdles that we all face is being able to translate what I would like to do as far as intentions. And get that to a place to where I can concretely devise a plan of action to be able to execute these things, is something that we lack. So being able to get the skills for social services for nonprofit programs, for different avenues of helping society with its ills, and being a part of the solution as a part as opposed to being part of the problem. Developing these skills is something that is critical, because good intentions is good within itself, but if you don’t have the concrete information, if I don’t have the concrete information, to be able to achieve these thing, if I don’t understand how important it is to to know the information of the nonprofit sector, if I don’t know even what a 501(c)(3) is, it’s gonna be impossible for whatever goodness is in my heart and whatever positive energy and approach that I may have if I don’t have the information to facilitate that.
So being able to acquire the skills while here allows me the freedom to – once I am enabled to achieve my release from prison – it allows me to immediately get my feet on the ground, to immediately, to immediately become a part of the action squad.And that’s why the act of acquisition of skills that the United, United Black Family Scholarship Fund provides, it’s critical to us in here because it allows us a chance to be completely marketable, gettin’ out, to be able to immediately get out and to get involved in the struggle within society. And that’s the difference. And sometimes that can be the difference between reoffending and not reoffending. And so that’s how important it is.
Question number 10 is: Making Amends. How do you envision the conference topics assist in this process? But making amends is, in itself, is a very important aspect. As a matter of fact, it’s a very necessary part of our rehabilitation, whether going through Narcotics Anonymous, NA Anonymous or other self-help groups, or even some of the spiritual paths to rehabilitation, making amends is a part of a person being able to really redeem themselves and really rehabilitate themselves. So being able to make amends is, is, is, is, is colossal. The conference topics themselves are geared towards attaining that knowledge. It’s geared towards allowing us to be able to see, I mean I have a bunch of great ideas in my mind. And I have a bunch of ways that I believe that I will be able to make limited amends with those in society. But I don’t know if I should be able to, if I should go to a nonprofit, can I start my own nonprofit, can I work for a nonprofit? Or is there another route within the social services sector, that I will be able to go through to be able to facilitate these amends? And the fact that I don’t have this information, it limits me, and sometimes even realistically can stifle a person’s desire and ability to continuously maintain that determination and focus.
The topics in the, in the conference, it gives me a concrete vision, it gives me a concrete, so it gives me a concrete steppin’ stone that allows me to be able to put these desires to make amends into action. And it gives me concrete… you know, one of the unique things about making amends is is a way to redeem the spirit. And so when we’re able to get this information on how I can redeem my spirit by helping others, then it’s really monumental in terms of my rehabilitation. And having that information here, specifically in the format that this conference is attempting to, to present to us, it will, it will make a tremendous difference in us being able to assist us, assist in the process of making amends. I think that the conference is a, is a, is a tremendous opportunity for CDCR to open up the doors for people who have good desires and goodwill and good intentions, and sometimes even a spiritual necessity to make amends. But it’s necessary for them to give us the information so that we can really be effective.
The analogy that I use sometimes is: sometimes when you have a snakebite toxin or a anti-toxin, you have to have some of the poison in that toxin. So, our experiences here in prison, our experiences that brought us here to prison are some of the same experiences and determination and things that we’ve had to overcome. These will play a part in being able to pay that forward, and to help other people move in a way where they’re able to redeem themselves, to where they’re able to rehabilitate themselves. And so I believe that us having the information in here while incarcerated, it allows us to be able to be released from prison and immediately become part of the problem – part of the solution – after being a part of the problem. So making amends, and helping people to be able to facilitate those amends, is something that’s really critical. And it’s something that’s underrepresented while we still here, because we have guys in prison that are incarcerated to have wonderful ideas and have the best intentions. But many of us just don’t know what avenue to go, and so by bringing that information in here to us, CDCR will really be doing us a great favor, but what they don’t understand and I think if they’re hesitant to acknowledge that they’ll be doing themselves a great favor, because there’ll be putting people out who are not only qualified, but people who have the desire, and the desire and the qualifications together, in my opinion is success.
And so I’m really hoping that CDCR will acknowledge the severe need to allow us to facilitate some of these more complicated bodies of information. and learn these more complicated trades and skills that really acknowledge, acknowledge us and empower us once were released. So it’s more beneficial because if I get out of prison, and I’m in a better state, and I have a great deal of capabilities, and potential, and I’m able to actually put that to use, and that benefits the whole society. So it’s one hand washes the other, it’s not just one way or the other way. It helps us all completely. So I’m hoping that they’ll pay attention to it. And that’s my answer to question number 10 on make … [End of recording.]
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