The Courage to Change: What Our Associates Teach Me Every Day
One of the greatest privileges of my work is witnessing the courage it takes for someone to change their life. People often assume that transformation begins with programs or policies or services, but in truth, it begins with something much deeper. It begins with a decision that is rarely loud or dramatic. More often, it’s quiet. It’s personal. It’s the moment when someone decides, sometimes for the first time, that their future matters more than their past.
Our Associates teach me this every single day.
Change is rarely straightforward. It isn’t a clean, linear path. It’s a series of steps, some forward, some backward, guided by the willingness to try again. When someone walks out of prison, they carry more than a release date. They carry years of shame, fear, and uncertainty. They carry memories of doors that closed on them, promises that were broken, and people who walked away. Choosing a different path requires tremendous bravery, because it asks them to believe in a future they’ve never experienced.
Yet even with all of that weight, they show up. They show up at our dinner symposiums, sometimes nervous and unsure, but willing. They sit across from strangers who will become mentors, advocates, and friends. They speak about their goals out loud, often for the first time. They allow themselves to imagine possibilities that once felt out of reach. And each time they take a step forward, no matter how small, it is an act of remarkable courage.
I’ve learned that courage doesn’t always look like strength on the outside. Sometimes it looks like admitting you don’t know where to start. Sometimes it’s calling for help instead of isolating. Sometimes it’s walking away from old relationships that threaten your progress. Sometimes it’s choosing to get up and go to work on a day when everything inside you wants to give up. And sometimes it’s simply allowing someone to believe in you when you’ve struggled to believe in yourself.
Our Associates remind me that the hardest changes are not the practical ones. Those can be taught. They can be practiced. They can be supported. The hardest changes are the internal ones, the healing, the forgiveness, the rebuilding of self-worth, the learning to trust again. Those are the changes that require heart. And our Associates bring that heart every time they decide to keep moving forward.
I often hear people describe our work as helping others, but the truth is that our Associates help us too. They remind us of resilience. They remind us of humanity. They remind us that people are capable of far more than we give them credit for. Watching them rise teaches me that transformation is not just possible, it is powerful. It is humbling. It is real.
Every time an Associate makes progress, it strengthens more than their life. It strengthens our community. It strengthens their families. It strengthens the belief that redemption is not just a word we talk about, but a reality we witness.
Their courage inspires me. It makes me want to work harder, listen deeper, and advocate stronger. It makes me grateful every day for the chance to walk alongside them.
The courage to change is one of the bravest acts a person can take. And our Associates prove, again and again, that when someone chooses that path, and when they have a community willing to walk it with them, their lives can transform in ways that ripple outward for generations.
Dwight