2CU: Robert and Accepting Defeat

Continuing with our work and getting you a front seat as to our programs, time to introduce Robert. As always, share and respond to the insight.

Robert:

 Hey, I’m Robert. I work in construction, or at least I did until a few months ago. Boss fired me because the company wasn’t doing well. I know they are getting plenty of business so I’m pretty upset about not working; probably has to do with my arrest.  

True enough, I’m more of a construction laborer but I still have lots to offer. Now, I can’t seem to find a job no matter how hard I try. I’m 24 years old and all I’ve ever done is construction work. They don’t want to hire somebody my age or maybe they think I can’t handle the job. It may be time for me to move on from manual labor, but I don’t know how. 

All the jobs I apply for wash out, and I can’t live off unemployment forever. I need a job now, any job. Don’t want to be in the system (prison) but I am ready to give up.

Insight: Sounds like Robert has accepted defeat. What advice would you share with Robert if he was in the classroom right now? Have you ever accepted defeat?

My advice to Robert would be:

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                               

Here’s what happens when I accept defeat:

                                                                                                                               

                                                                                                                               

2^nd Chance University partners with organizations/institutions dedicated to those who have stumbled. Our material and workshops take advantage of real people, real life, and real issues.

I welcome your stories to be added into our series. If you chose to share or support, email me directly. For those wishing to introduce 2CU and our programs into an organization, institution, or facility, please step forward; together we can make a difference.

Danny Huffman
407-878-0474
2^nd Chance University
dhuffman@2ndChanceUniversity.org

2CU: Justice-Involved Programs

2^nd Chance University is a non-profit dedicated to educating, employing, and empowering the justice-involved. Our 18-book, 4-6 month intensive programs take an aggressive interactive approach founded by trauma-informed care, behavioral modification, and consciousness consequence theory.

2^nd Chance University programs serve youth (14-17 years of age), adult diversion to incarceration (18-24 years of age, low level offense), and adult pre/post release.

Our material and workshops take advantage of real people, real life, and real issues. Virtual participants throughout the pages are real and so is their story.

During these submission we bring core characters to the forefront, are not censored, and depict life during and after arrest factually. I encourage each reader to follow the stories, respond to the questions, and regain lost hope.

At this time, let me introduce Stick, a solid contributor and has been with 2^nd Chance University since 2012.

• Served 11 ½ years in one of the hardest penal systems in the country, Texas.

Doing time: A tall raw-boned red headed man sat next to me in the holding cell. He said his name was Red. We talked a little and he told me he was in for stabbing his girlfriend with a pitchfork. She didn’t die.

“But,” he said, “She won’t be looking at any other men now!”

I asked, “Why’s that?”

Red said, “I stuck the pitchfork in her face and the prongs went into her eyes, so now she can’t see.”

A cold chill went up my spine as I looked at this pasty faced man, I didn’t comment, but moved a few inches away.

Stick

Insight: What life and everyday choices will you give up by going to prison?

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In future articles, we will learn more about Stick, Duck, and others as they share their story.

2^nd Chance University is a non-profit designed for those who have stumbled within our justice system as they regain their Commitment, Hope, and Empowerment.

I welcome your stories to be added into our series. If you chose to share or support, email me directly. For those wishing to introduce 2CU and our programs into an organization, institution, or facility, please step forward.

Danny Huffman
dhuffman@2ndChanceUniversity.org
2^nd Chance University

2CU Programs Ready to Roll

2nd Chance University is a non-profit organization focusing on youth and adults who have stumbled. Presently we are reaching out to those with a strong desire to make their community safer by offering youths and young adults an alternative to incarceration. This is where we need your help to implement effective programs in a partnership capacity.

Simply put, our 3, 6, and 18-month life-changing programs work, are scalable, and are cost effective.

Through the guidance of criminal justice administrators, facilitators, parole officers, inmates and parolees, 2nd Chance University brings intensive and interactive workshops for three audiences:

1. Youth Reintegration and Empowerment offering the 14 – 17 year old who has fallen off their path a proactive method to regain Commitment, Hope, and Empowerment. This program works in unison with brick and mortar facilities and is customized to parallel with academic goals and objectives of the facility and state.

2. Adult Alternatives to Incarceration allowing the 17 – 24 year old low-level offender to reestablish their path to freedom and success. This program affords Judges and District Attorneys to have an option from incarceration for those who have made a mistake.

3. Adult pre- and post-release brings reality front and center. Constructed by former convicts who have been through pre- and post-release programs, game-playing is not part of the equation. There are no more effective programs to show convicts what it takes to stay on the path, to secure and keep a job, and to become a productive part of the community.

• Each program follows a similar core format:
  Turn-key ready
  Hard print and/or digital friendly
  Eighteen book courseware with an additional facilitator guide
  Individualized train-the-trainer two-day seminar held at our local headquarters in Sanford, Florida, or can be brought to your facility for group advantage.

Personally going through release camps and living the life, many of our contributors know there are no other programs as effective, interactive, and tangible than what is presented by 2nd Chance University.

Our classroom setting in Sanford, Florida handles up to 26 students and is also used for facilitator training workshops.

At your convenience, call for a deeper understanding of what and who 2nd Chance University is and how joining forces will build a better tomorrow, today.

Danny Huffman
407-878-0474
dhuffman@2ndChanceUniversity.org

Second Chance… Think Again.

“To say is not to do. To do is to say.”
Duck

For those who do not know Duck, he is simply a man.
A man who spent 13 years incarcerated for a crime he did not commit but still walks a path defined by society
unwilling to offer second chances.

We’ve heard it many times and at many levels: “Everybody deserves a second chance.” But what does that really mean? Does society truly offer second chances? Do you, really?

Duck is not a bitter man.
He is simply a man wishing to live his life peacefully
and with equal opportunity.

From employment to housing to EVERYTHING in between, rare are the few offering second chances. Perhaps it is because we all have our own lives to live and who needs “fear” to be in the equation if possible… am I right ladies? Don’t think I need to explain the last line or justify what most think.

For the person, organization, potential employer, and the hypocrite pretending otherwise, stop saying and begin doing. Give others, all others no matter their race or stumbled background, a chance to be the person he or she is meant to be. It’s pretty simple, stopping the madness begins by stopping the talk and doing the do.

Duck is man refusing defeat.
He is simply a man who has been escorted off jobs
in front of crowds because a crime he didn’t commit.

Empowering and employing begins with YOU, not by what you say but by what you do.

I ask one thing from you: Be true to yourself and those around you. Stop the bull, keep what you say real, and if you don’t believe (and live the life) in second chances, stop pretending you do.

Duck, like the millions who have stumbled, will rise to the challenge of humbling himself every step along the journey…
with or without you.

2nd Chance University is a non-profit designed for those who have stumbled within our justice system as they regain their Commitment, Hope, and Empowerment.

Duck is a man offering importance.
His experience, struggles, and story is threaded throughout 2^nd Chance University’s programs inspiring those
who have also stumbled.

We are seeking partnerships to bring our programs to communities across the nation. If you work with or know of organizations, work force centers, penal institutions, and/or judges and district attorneys committed to changing people’s path, bring it on. Together we can change the world, one person at a time.

Danny Huffman
407-878-0474
dhuffman@2ndChanceUniversity.org

 

Journey to an NP, Part 2

If you have not checked out the previous submission, you may feel a bit out-paced. Either way, here goes the second part as the journey to a Non Profit continues…

Since 2012 I’ve expanded our non-profit to support three justice-involved categories:

• Youth reintegration and empowerment
• Adult alternatives to incarceration
• Pre- and post- release from incarceration

Six years later, our 4-month, 18-book, series/interactive workshops, are launching mainly because this once 16-year old softball player saw people in La Tuna as people… not as monsters… just people who made a mistake and needs to regain balance and Hope.

Over the years, this journey has had a personal cost of over six figures… the amount returned to cover? Zero… not one cent.

Worth it? You tell me, would you sacrifice years and over six figures with only Hope to make a positive difference in lives, families, and the world?

In this regard, will share participant journeys and how their lives change as we grow.

We are a 501 (C) (3) on the brink of great things… let me know if you would like to share in this journey; your insight, contacts, support, and donations are appreciated.

2^nd Chance University is a non-profit designed for our youth as well as our adult population who have stumbled to regain their Commitment, Hope, and Empowerment.

If you chose to share or support, email me directly at dhuffman@2ndChanceUniversity.org and if you or a family member played softball years ago while at La Tuna, thank you for letting me into your world.

Danny Huffman
Founder
dhuffman@2ndChanceUniversity.org
321-972-8919
2ndChanceUniversity.org