"I don't know where I'd be without him.  My dad lives in Hawaii and I didn't have a lot of positive influences. Paul is obviously somebody who has his life together."  These words were spoken by a formerly incarcerated man about his Operation Transformation mentor.

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Our Past: Operation Transformation contracted with the Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative (now Offender Success) from 2006 until 2014 to develop and manage a reentry mentoring program.  The program was active in eleven counties and provided services to over one thousand returning citizens.  Our program was considered to be very successful during these years. The program director served on State and National Committees that addressed reentry issues and was contracted to train mentoring directors whose programs were recipients of federal funding from the Second Chance Grant. Operation Transformation provided consulting services to several other faith based and community organizations in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Brighton.  The program stopped being funded after eight years of partnership due to cuts in the Michigan Department of Corrections budget.

 

Our Present and Future:  In 2019 we relaunched the mentoring initiative in St. Clair County.   We reorganized in St. Clair county only and are growing once again.  Now in 2023, we have over 35 mentee/mentor relationships and growing.   Our mentees come from countless agencies like our local county jail, Blue Water Recovery Center, as well as our many half-way houses in the area.  Our intent is to come alongside those in recovery and serve as encouragers, role models and friends.  We are currently recruiting, training and certifying volunteer mentors.  Most of them come from our local churches.  Once they are matched with a mentee, they will be given ongoing support for the duration of the relationship.    Mentors will make a commitment to meeting regularly with their mentees at least four hours per month for at least a year.    

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We need your help! If you are interested in hearing more and potentially serving as a volunteer mentor, then please contact Randy Bennett (Operation Transformation Outreach Coordinator) at 734-536-8864 or rbennett@optrans.org. The application to become a member is below. We also need to raise additional funding for the program.  Please let us know if you would be interested in joining our financial support team.