Our Promise
We promise to create an environment in which our members feel safe, valued and loved. In that environment, they will have the opportunity to transform, allowing loved ones to watch from a distance.
We promise to dismantle the dominance of the criminal culture in our communities through engaging and equipping our members with culture-transforming skills.
Acceptance
At Lifeline, we believe that ex-offenders need to be accepted right where they are, just as they are. We know that they can’t accept and love others until they accept and love themselves. Success looks different for each person—we define it as looking in the mirror and liking what you see.
“Our members come to us depressed, torn and experiencing extreme trauma,” DeAndre says. “They’ve tried every other avenue and realized nothing else will work. We take them back to wherever it was they messed up—sometimes that’s 20 years ago—repair whatever is in their mind that triggered it and then build them up and bring them back to where they are today.”
Self-acceptance is just one step on the road from prison to promise. Ex-offenders face challenges beyond just being labeled—they need help with identity documents, job training and education.
For our members, Lifeline is a way of life, a school and a family. It provides them a place to be heard, and a place to learn…guidance for spiritual struggles and guidance for earning a GED.
With your support, we help our members go from prison to promise.
“I used to say, ‘I don’t like people.’ But since I’ve been here, I realize my duty is not to myself. It’s to other people. I’m supposed to be showing somebody something different, because I’ve been shown something different. Lifeline is a place where you can be your real self.”
We Can't Do It Without You
More than 1,000 men and women have come through the Lifeline to Success program in the last eight years—fewer than five have gone on to commit another felony. Success is defined differently for each of our Team Members. For some it’s becoming a better parent, for others it’s staying sober and for many it means landing a job and employment.
For all of them, it means leading a life guided by the Lifeline to Success creed:
I am a success
I matter
I am important
I am somebody special
I am loved
I am needed
I am NOT my crime
I am NOT my past
I am new
God loves me
Each class session ends with members standing to recite those words. Saying them together, in a safe place and as part of a community, is the essence of Lifeline to Success.
That community and that safe place don’t exist without the generous support of our partners and donors. YOUR gift will help these men and women grab hold of the Lifeline to Success and plant them firmly on the road from prison to promise.