LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Operation Making a Change -- or OMAC -- has been in Lexington's community for some time. The organization offers mentoring, coaching and support and once a week its founder Gerald 'Geo' Gibson comes to the Fayette County Detention Center to lead a re-entry program.
Gibson says, "When I come in a lot of the men and women can relate to me because of what I went through myself. And so, once they're listening to me for weeks at a time, they start of course trusting the process more."
He says that when he first started thinking about this program, he was sitting in a prison cell himself. He's been incarcerated three times. But now he's trying to use his own story and experience to inspire others.
Gibson says, “I was tired of being sick and tired. I was tired of being that negative influence over people -- not just people in my community but in my family as well. And so, I had to learn a lot from other people. So, I had to start aligning myself with the right people."
Gibson says it's important to build trust early on to show people what's possible in their own lives. Vanessa Israel is this center's re-entry coordinator. She says this work is important for people who really want to change their lives.
Israel says, "You know they're tired. They've ripped and ran; they've done whatever it is that they felt they wanted to do. But now, they're at a place in their life to where they really want to do better, they want to be better."
A part of re-entry is reshaping stigmas. Gibson encourages people to stop judging and think about some of the choices that they've made. He explains sometimes people just need a fresh start.
He says, "We can’t keep judging a book by its cover. We have to pour into re-entry as much resources as we can and make a lot of resources available so when these people come home, they'll have something to come home to."
Gibson wants people in his classes to remember that change can happen, everyone makes mistakes, and that everyone is deserving of a second chance.
He says, "I want them to walk out of here and say, 'you know what I can be a more productive community person, I can be you know a father or mother to my children the right way without coming back in here as a prisoner."
