Letter to Formerly Incarcerated and Homeless participants at The Mission in Skidrow

Dear Future Leaders,

The first time we met, there were over 35 of us and we started a conversation about who we are and what is possible. We formed a Community. You named our group: “Friends 4 Life with No One Left Behind.” We talked about how we can support one another and make a difference in our communities and society. There were ideas of doing projects as a community.

We have met three times and each time there is more authenticity, empowerment, and unity. We are inspired by you, by your compassion, by your willingness and wanting to make a difference.

We will each recognize that we are not broken; the cracks we see from our past do not mean we are broken, the cracks are where light can shine through. We will expand our community with a commitment to never give up on a human being and as we expand we bring peace to the world.

Some of you are further in your journey of leaving the past behind. Even those of you who are struggling to trust yourself to not repeat the past, are very concerned for the wellbeing of others.

We have a growing number of mentors to support you in your journey of expanding who you are for yourself and the world. As you probably know, it is a privilege to be a mentor. A mentor views a mentee much bigger than the mentee can imagine him or her Self to be; and in doing so a mentor’s view of life expands; a mentor lives a life of inspiration.

I have a vision and I am inviting you to participate with me in fulfilling that vision as follows:

• Each of you to have goals for yourself and fulfill on your goals and in the process recognize yourselves as great human beings and a community that can accomplish anything and become mentors for our incarcerated and formerly incarcerated to create new futures and live inside of a created new futures.
• Bring global awareness of who the people are who are incarcerated and how compassion and support guides and heals a human being to become mentors and healers whereas judgment and imprisonment is harmful to society as a whole.
  • Bring different organizations in support of our community together to work together in making a difference.
  • Have our community use social media on a daily basis to bring awareness and support to our community.
  • Set up a huge Fun Raising and Fundraising event with collaboration of 20 different organizations for Restorative Justice such as Emerging Leaders, ACLU, Skidrow Running Club, ARC, Criminal Collaborative Courts, MacArthur Foundation…; we will have speakers like Les Brown, Judge Mitchell, Clyde Terry, and a few of you; entertainers and celebrities including a few of you; and food trucks and sponsors like Bank of America.

Our NEXT STEP:

Since Greg does not work at the Mission anymore, we have lost our access to use the location for our meetings. We need you, with each others’ support, to help us find a location where we can meet and continue our conversations and development.

Please let me if you are willing to take on any the following leadership role: Communicating with other members of the community and either getting cooperation from the Mission or suggesting other locations in the area for our meetings.

If we find a location outside of the mission, then we need you to work together and work out transportation.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Love, Community, and Audacity,
Michelle Daneshrad