Real Reentry: Moving Up
RISE not only opened a reentry office in Lincoln last month but also moved from the second floor of the Blackstone Plaza to the fifth floor. September was…wild, chaotic, thrilling, sweaty, hard, beautiful, and joyful.
As our staff, programming, graduates, and opportunities have grown substantially over the last six years, the need for more space and accessibility has also grown to say the least.
It feels unreal to type out the words we moved into “two homes” last month (just last week for Omaha). And to speak candidly, it blows my socks off. If you don’t know me, I’m a very emotional and sentimental person. It’s mainly a blessing. (I’ll let those near and dear to me laugh at that one.)
Over the last two weeks I’ve spent hours curating images I’ve taken over the years inside and out of facilities to be displayed throughout our spaces. Every image I selected…every moment I wanted displayed were for very specific reasons. I wanted our spaces to feel like our program participants were here with us. I wanted Gabe, Zeke, Kolt, Kim, JoHelen, Kenny, Michael, and Nana to feel like they were in our offices. I wanted Niccole, Jackson, Mike, and Abbey to know they’re still here with us. I wanted our Business Academy graduates and our Family Program participants to feel like they helped us make this space too, because it’s for them. I wanted our spaced to feel like hope. For all of us.
After I settled into my new (and very cute) fifth floor office this morning, I went down to our old office and took pictures of the empty and dark rooms. It feels like something we’ll want to look back on in the future.
I remember my first time going to the first RISE office - being walked back to a strange, nearly storage-closet-of-an-office that you had to take 8 left turns down a hallway to get to. I’m sure some of you remember that from the earliest days.
When RISE graduated to another small office on the second floor, I thought we hit the jackpot. We could look out the window and dream of our very own Jasmine Harris’ face on the bus bench as she ran for Mayor. When we acquired the larger office next to us, I couldn’t believe we’d grown that much.
It was in those small offices we dreamed big together. It’s where we welcomed Sean, Megan, Kimmy, Terrell, and over 150 RISE graduates home. It’s where we saw Monte for the first time after cutting off 12+ inches of hair for his first interview after returning home. It’s where we came together, yet apart, during the pandemic. It’s where we had hard conversations and grieved when we lost graduates to addiction, suicide, car accidents, and cancer. It’s where we battled with each other lovingly over making coffee because we didn’t have a sink. It’s where we celebrated families healing, children being creative, and small businesses starting. It’s where we swung for the fences and burned the mission of breaking the generational cycles of incarceration into our hearts.
Those offices were small, but they allowed us to grow what I like to call “big hope”.
Knowing that our program participants and graduates get to have a space to come and “be” both in Omaha and Lincoln, fills my heart to the brim. Our Family Program and Business Academy participants can spread out, learn, and create together. We have so much more hope to give and grow in these spaces and I’m simply in awe that we get to do it, and do it together.
If you get my monthly storytime emails, it’s because you’ve made differences, big and small, in our mission. Whether or not you ever stepped foot in our first offices on the 2nd floor of the then, Kiewit Plaza, and the now renamed Blackstone Plaza, you are a part of this. And that’s not just something I’m saying in a “mass email”. You truly are, and thank you. Thank you for supporting us as an organization, but us as people. We’re so grateful for everything.
With that, we’re just chomping at the bit for you to see our new digs!
We are having a Lincoln Open House and ribbon cutting (holy moly we have a Lincoln office) this Friday, October 6th from 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM. Please, please come. You can RSVP and get more information on that here.
And because two parties are more fun than one, we’re having an OMAHA Open House and ribbon cutting on Thursday, October 19th from 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM. You can RSVP and get more information on that event here.
Who knew an office and a kitchen sink would feel like the lottery?
It’s the little things, my friends.
It’s the little things.
PS - I’ve had several people ask how Les is doing! I’m so excited to share that he’s doing so well and sent his case manager a picture of him in his new dorm room last month. It was the best “back to school” picture we’ve ever seen.
