by Nina Zhao
Brandy is a graduate of the Phoenix Project program in the women’s facility. She now works at Phoenix Odyssey, where she is a Peer Navigator, leads event planning, and helps us with administrative work. In my interview with her, Brandy told me about her experience in the Phoenix Project and about what things look like for her now.
Reflecting on her experience in the program, she realizes that she started it with walls up. She didn’t want to open up to the group or participate fully in the activities during class. However, about halfway through the program, she began a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining program through Polaris MEP. At this point, she realized that these programs were her way home, and she began taking the Phoenix Project more seriously. “I actually started journaling,” which is a weekly assignment for participants in the Phoenix Project, “and I actually became a part of the class and started to enjoy it,” she says. By the end of the six months of the Phoenix Project program, Brandy says that everyone in the class had become “a little family.” She believes it was a great experience for her during her incarceration. In March of 2023, she was released from prison on parole.
As one of her parole stipulations, Brandy lived in a transitional housing unit upon release. She worked at a manufacturing plant that Polaris placed her at and got a second job working at a hotel. She immediately started taking classes at Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI). During this time, it was challenging to juggle the many things on her plate: two jobs, school, the restrictions of her parole and living situation, and other responsibilities. She relied on skills she learned while in the Phoenix Project program about time management, journaling, and planning. A few months later, she secured an apartment for herself.
After going home, she continued her relationship with the staff at Vantage Point. In December of 2023, Kathy asked her if she wanted to help Phoenix Odyssey plan an event, and Brandy began working more closely with the Phoenix Odyssey team. During this time, Brandy also began working toward her Peer Navigator certification and became familiarized with the administrative side of Phoenix Odyssey. Brandy co-led the planning of our first business consortium this March, which hosted more than 65 employers, legislative representatives, and Phoenix graduates to learn more about fair chance hiring and the Phoenix programs. In May, she earned her Associate’s degree from CCRI.
Brandy feels that she has grown a lot in the past year and a half. She is usually very shy, she says, but she has grown much more comfortable with the staff and with the clients since she started working with Phoenix Odyssey. This month, she attended the groups for the men in the Polaris program. As a former participant in the Phoenix Project program, she has a unique perspective. She enjoys going to these groups because she sees herself and the people she grew up around in them. “I want to help them,” she says. When she sees people showing the same reluctance that she had when she first started the program, she says, sometimes she feels the urge to tell them, “just give it a chance.”
When Brandy first signed on to help organize an event for Phoenix Odyssey, “I didn’t think it would be like this,” she says. She didn’t realize that she would end up working on so many different fronts of the organization, actively interacting with and helping our recently incarcerated clients. The most rewarding part of Brandy’s work with us, she said, is seeing our clients after they’re released from prison. When our clients come in to meet with us, Brandy recognizes that she was once in their shoes. She wants to help them and “help them realize there are people here that are trying to help them succeed.”
Brandy is passionate about working with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals. She feels that “there’s a lot of work that can be done.” In the future, “I also want to do something with youth,” she says, “because that’s where it starts.” Growing up, “I never thought I was going to live past the age of 18,” Brandy says. With the people around her going in and out of prison, she turned to the streets, and she didn’t see another way out. She has watched the generational impacts of incarceration and violence play out in her own life, and she wants to change that for others.
From dealing with the obstacles of having a criminal record to grappling with personal losses, Brandy has and continues to overcome challenges. She has been a valuable member of our team at Phoenix Odyssey and always brings a helpful attitude and perspective. We are so glad to have her working with us!
