Written by Rob Stewart
This will be tough. Tough to put into words the powerful, life altering, joyous event I and hundreds of others had the pleasure to witness last week, the 2016 Employment Training Graduation of Saint John’s Program for Real Change. I have been emceeing events for 20 years, mostly in the past five years here in Northern California. I do not compare events. Each has its own beauty and breath of fresh air. But for this one, I have been asked specifically to write about graduation and I gladly accepted. I write this as Rob Stewart, not as a representative of KVIE.
The first Thursday of every month, Saint John’s Program for Real Change hosts the Guest Chef Dinner. It highlights the best and brightest restaurants and vineyards in Northern California while training the clients in the work force. I have been blessed to emcee this monthly event for almost two years now. I say this, only to qualify that I know what I am about to say as true. As a journalist, I can report this to you.
One month ago, I was asked by Executive Director Michele Brown Steeb to be her guest speaker at her Friday Positive Thinking class. I gladly accepted and after a couple of scheduling conflicts on my part, it worked out. I arrived early, about 9am, to a find a woman trying to get up the front stairs with everything she owned. It was dirty and crammed in a small cart. How symbolic. She couldn’t get it up the stairs. I asked her to let me help her, and with a blank, almost dead look on her face, she said “sure.” When we opened the doors, I said to this lovely broken, shattered soul, “wait. You are safe now. When you walk through this door, you are walking through the doors of hope, for real change, for a better life.” All she could say is “I hope so.” I said “that is up to you. And I know you can do this.”
We walked to the very back of the private facility for the Positive Thinking class. Naturally, we keep this location confidential. I once heard a quote that we all have a chapter we don’t read out loud. No. Not today. These women did not need to see some white television host standing up there telling them how to live. They needed to know that I know what it is like when life gets broken, when things fall apart, to live in crisis (I have never lived as they have but I wanted to relate) and to let them know that the singer Sandi Patty quote, “Our redeemer (whoever that is for you) somehow uses even what we most regret” is true.
“For the 11 graduates from Saint John’s Program for Real Change, it was a night that righted a ship so far off course it almost sunk”
I have had my fair share of group therapy experiences. I’ve made it no secret that I quit drinking and sought help exactly three years ago. That got their attention. I had 20 broken women sitting in front of me. I pictured them as broken pieces of different colored glass, and we all know what broken glass makes when put together – stained glass windows. Beautiful art. We talked for about an hour and a half. I cannot or will not repeat the horrific stories I heard. I could and would have stayed a week. EVERY woman in this class was broken but not beyond repair, hopeless but not helpless. They kept saying “we are homeless.” “NO YOU ARE NOT” I exclaimed. “You live here, with your new family, a family that will always have your back.” Out of respect for the class, I’m not going into any more detail. But let me say I have never in my life, personal or professional, met a group of women who had lived in constant chaos, yet wanted to change more than anything on this earth. These are some of the strongest women I’ve ever met. They’ve got it.
Which leads me to graduation night. August 4th, 6:30 pm at Plates Cafe, the training facility where many of the women receive employment training. There were a lot of important people there. US Representative Ami Bera and his wife Janine, former County Supervisor and former California Secretary of Health and Human Services Sandy Smoley, Olympian Starr Hurley Jones, Philanthropic Attorney Russell Austin, and Sacramento County District Attorney Marie Schubert. Not to mention the countless people there that generously give to make this program work, but no one was more important than the 11 graduates.
Think about where you were last year. Of course, we have all battled heartache, death, had celebrations – life changing events that will stick with you forever. For the 11 graduates from Saint John’s Program for Real Change, it was a night that righted a ship so far off course it almost sunk, had it not been for Saint John’s Program for Real Change. Most of these women suffer from addiction. They are now clean and sober; a mandate of this successful program. Many had, in one year, gotten their GED, been reunited with their children, found the smile in their soul again (the same smile that was dead on the woman’s face I had helped enter a month earlier) and were surrounded by mended relationships to cheer them on to the future. I tried to tell the women, after each was proudly presented with a gorgeous graduation plate with their name engraved on it, that our past does not define us, but can serve as a reminder of what is possible if we do not stay the course. You should have heard the exuberant speeches of the graduates, many who would not speak one year ago, tell about their reunited family, their new jobs, and their apartments. ALL, because someone believed in them and held them to the fire to believe it. I love the power of a visual, and I asked every woman in the graduating class, and those learning skills to graduate next year, to come out to the stage. The women needed real love. I asked everyone attending to hold out their hands to the clients, and for the clients to remember that not only are we here to love you and congratulate you, but now a new phase of hard work is coming, staying sober, employed, and remembering this love, staying away from toxic situations. And when times get hard, and they will, to remember this circle of love. Healing has ripple effects that go far and wide. All of Saint John’s Program for Real Change has made sure that those ripples are waves of grace, and these women believe. We believe that each woman can reach not one, but dozens of people, sharing their story of strength, personal forgiveness, growth, sobriety, employment and housing!
Earlier this year, I featured Saint John’s Program for Real Change on a highly rated episode called “Heroes and Hands” sponsored by Russell Austin’s firm. This young graduate came up to me and said “Guess what! I’m known on the streets from my past, selling drugs. Someone came up to me, thinking they were asking for drugs, and they said ‘wow – we have seen you turning your life around’ and she smiled from ear to ear. “That’s the first time anyone has ever recognized me for not being a drug dealer.”
Here’s what I know to be a fact. Saint John’s Program for Real Change changes lives. I’ve seen it, I’ve watched it, I’ve witnessed it, and I’ve experienced it. I cannot imagine a world without this program – where women would be lost forever.
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