“You’re home now, but that doesn’t mean everything feels okay.”

You may be lying awake wondering if you can actually hold onto this job, if your family will ever fully trust you again, if you’re going to make it or end up back where you started. That worry doesn’t mean you’re failing, it means you know how much is at stake. You are not the first person to feel this way, and you will not be the last. There are people who have made it through this exact fear and come out the other side. 

Understanding This Struggle

At The RIDGE Project, we define real change in three phases: owning your story, telling your story, and planning for your future. Right now, that might not look like one big decision. It might look like choosing it again, every day, even on the hard days.

This isn’t just a hopeful idea. Only 2.6% of TYRO graduates return to prison, compared to 21% across Ohio and 37% nationally. That kind of change comes from people who kept going even when it was hard, not from people who never struggled.

What Can You Begin to Consider?

These questions are intended to help you reflect on where you are right now and identify where you may need support.

1. What’s the biggest worry running through your mind right now about how things are going to go? What others are saying.

2. When something goes wrong, do you tell yourself it means you’re failing, or that you’re human? See our outcomes.

3. What does it look like to keep planning for your future, even on the days it feels impossible? Read some ways to plan.

4. If work has been hard to find or hold onto, what’s really standing in the way? 10 Tips to Getting a Job with a Felony.

5. Is there tension at home that you’ve been avoiding instead of facing? More about YRO Dads & TYRO Moms.

6. Patrick McCleveland faced this same uncertainty and built something out of it anyway. What would that look like for you? See this case study

7. Who can you actually be honest with about how hard this is right now? More on building your Support System.

Continue Learning

The RIDGE Project and its related resources offer additional support to equip you to stay home for good, not just make home a visitation.

The RIDGE Project Resources: a directory of further support, including TYRO Times, TYRO TV, and blog content. See resources

TYRO Dads / TYRO Moms: personal-growth programs built around accountability, rebuilding trust, and reconnecting with family after time away. TYRO Dads and TYRO Moms

TYRO.blog, employment guidance: practical, direct advice for finding and keeping work with a record. Read 10 Tips to Getting a Job with a Felony.

Next Step: Explore the resources above, one step at a time, on the days it feels hard to take even one.