It's the little wins for us. Real Reentry.
by McKenzie Ring, Director of Marketing + Communications
It's the little wins for us.
Andy is currently taking the Business Essentials portion of RISE's In Prison Program while finishing his time at a community corrections center. He's dyslexic and has never received assistance or treatment for his learning challenges.
Living with a learning challenge can be frustrating, isolating, and make one feel misunderstood. It can also make giving up easy and speaking up impossible.
Last week, Andy was brave and spoke up to Heather, his RISE Prison Program Associate, about his dyslexia and the difficulties he was having getting through the curriculum book.
Heather had heard placing colored plastic sheets over text had helped people with dyslexia in the past and asked if he would be willing to experiment with it. He was reluctant, but opted for the chance to try.
When Heather brought the colored plastic sheets to Andy, he immediately realized blue and red make the words stop moving on the page for him! He was excited and grateful Heather took the time to listen and try to help as opposed to expecting him to adapt to a neurotypical way of learning.
Heather reflected, "I was reminded this week that sometimes just showing up and being present is enough."
For us, it's little wins like these that are the biggest most days. It's speaking up and advocating for yourself. It's finding little ways to make big differences that will translate further than a curriculum book when people return to the community.
This month, we hope you can celebrate the little wins like we do.
