Community Organizations Making a Difference

By: AIF Staff

Earlier this week, in a moving ceremony, President Donald Trump issued a formal pardon for Jon Ponder, who was previously convicted of bank robbery and who, after serving his sentence, went on to found HOPE for Prisoners, a nationally recognized, Las Vegas-based organization that provides a number of reentry and reintegration services to men and women exiting various parts of our judicial system. Ponder’s story is one of redemption and shows how policymakers can help individuals make the most of their second chance and make an impact in the lives of others.

American Idea Foundation President and former House Speaker Paul Ryan has been fortunate to develop a relationship with Ponder and HOPE for Prisoners over the years, and he was delighted to see the President recognize their efforts. In describing the transformative work that Ponder has done, President Trump said: 

“He has created one of the most successful reentry programs, HOPE for Prisoners, in Las Vegas. HOPE for Prisoners is a movement that began as a dream, in a tiny prison cell, and is now making a difference in the lives of thousands, truly bringing hope that there is an opportunity and a community that is waiting and willing to offer them a second chance.”

During a 2018 visit, Speaker Ryan spoke with Jon Ponder and met with program partners and individual participants to learn how they are rebuilding their lives and recognizing their versions of the American Dream after paying their debt to society.

As the Las Vegas Review-Journal covered at the time:

House Speaker Paul Ryan joined former U.S. Rep. Cresent Hardy in Las Vegas for a panel discussion on criminal justice reform with participants in a program that Ryan says should be an example for the entire country.

The private discussion, held at the Las Vegas-based Hope for Prisoners office, included law enforcement officials and elected leaders such as Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske and former Nevada Gov. Robert List….

“What I’m so impressed with Hope for Prisoners is the fact that you do this in conjunction with local law enforcement, with the DA, with local elected officials,” Ryan said, sitting at a table flanked by Hardy and Ponder. “That, to me, is extremely impressive.”

In touring the facility and in his discussion with HOPE for Prisoners’ graduates, Ryan focused on how the HOPE for Prisoners’ model is results-driven and aimed at helping one individual at a time get the customized support necessary to become forces of good in their communities.

Since its creation in 2004, HOPE for Prisoners has assisted over 3,000 individuals and their program participants have just a 6% recidivism rate. It has been recognized by policymakers from across the ideological spectrum for its innovative programming and personalized approach to recidivism reduction. Earlier in 2020, President Trump addressed a group of HOPE for Prisoner program graduates, stating in part:

“We are here to reaffirm that America is a nation that believes in redemption.  And that’s what it’s about: redemption.…You’re returning to your families.  You have paid your debt to society and shown a commitment to change.  You’ve overcome many challenges: broken free of addiction, learned new skills, and replaced old habits with fresh resolve….

“And now you have a chance to begin a new chapter that you are proud to call your own.  And I have little doubt you’re going to be very, very successful.  Your future does not have to be defined by the mistakes of the past.”

Without question, the HOPE for Prisoners model of success is one that needs to be looked at by policymakers and replicated by community leaders around the country. Every day, Jon Ponder and his team are helping individuals’ build lives of purpose one step at a time. This work is not easy, but it is making a huge impact in Nevada.

Through their mentorship programs, their vocational training models, and their emphasis on financial responsibility and life skills, HOPE for Prisoners is working person-to-person, soul-to-soul, to assist individuals get back on their feet. Their efforts have ripple effects reverberating in neighborhoods around Las Vegas and are yielding impressive results.

They have developed a model that involves local officials, community leaders, and members of our criminal justice system who all work in tandem to reduce recidivism and encourage successful reintegration into our communities. It is very similar to the approaches taken by United Health Care and JPMorgan Chase, which Speaker Ryan highlighted this summer in a virtual panel discussion entitled 2nd Chances: Developing New Solutions for Returning Citizens.

The work that Jon Ponder is doing is inspiring, and as lawmakers from both parties examine reforms to our criminal justice system, their learning from groups like HOPE for Prisoners will undoubtedly improve public policy outcomes.

Consistent with its mission of promoting public policies and evidence-based models that expand the American Idea and advance upward mobility and economic opportunities, Speaker Ryan has focused on reforming our criminal justice system since leaving Congress. Earlier this year, he penned a foreword for the journal, Rethinking Reentry, produced by the American Enterprise Institute, which detailed a host of strategies to reorient our criminal justice system so it better promotes reintegration and redemption, as opposed to just retribution. 

The President’s pardon of Jon Ponder and his highlighting of HOPE for Prisoners put a bright light on an individual and an organization making a tangible difference in the lives of others, and Ponder’s work should serve as a reminder of how powerful a second chance can be. 

By: AIF Staff

Following the 2012 Presidential Election, American Idea Foundation President and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan set out to listen and learn from individuals who are fighting for change in communities around the country. Rather than relying on experts in Washington for answers, Speaker Ryan thought it was better to go straight to the source and he spent years meeting with local leaders and groups who are making a positive difference one person at a time. 

The premise was simple: Speaker Ryan believed that there were bright spots in communities throughout the country: Organizations flying under the radar achieving success and taking on the tough issues, individuals embodying the best of America and helping their fellow neighbors, and communities improving themselves from the ground-up. His hope was to hear how these individuals were making positive contributions, see their work in action, and then touch more people’s lives by advancing public policies that incorporated these models of success. After listening and learning, Ryan collaborated with his fellow policy-makers to develop legislative solutions to enhance these organizations’ efforts to accomplish their mission and scale their models of success. It is a blueprint that the American Idea Foundation has continued to build on since Speaker Ryan left Congress. 

One month after the 2012 election, Ryan laid out his reasons for this approach at the Jack Kemp Leadership Award Dinner: 

“We must carry on and keep fighting for the American Idea – the belief that everyone should have the opportunity to rise … to escape from poverty…. and to achieve whatever your God-given talents and hard work enable you to achieve. That is the promise of American life. And for too many Americans, it isn’t being kept….

“We need a vision for bringing opportunity into every life – one that promotes strong families, secure livelihoods, and an equal chance for every American to fulfill their highest aspirations for themselves and their children.

“This vision leaves behind the failures of the past. It seeks instead to build on those reforms that have worked. It calls on government to encourage, not displace, the efforts of free people to help one another. It calls for a stronger safety net – one that protects the most vulnerable and promotes self-reliance. It calls for an end to the chronic inequalities in our education system.

“And finally, it promotes economic growth through free enterprise – because nothing has done more to lift people everywhere out of poverty.”

Working with his mentor and noted community organizer Bob Woodson, Ryan set about identifying those entities and organizations that were helping individuals achieve their version of the American dream and that were tackling the key challenges facing our communities. 

Subsequently, some of the organizations that Speaker Ryan visited and developed relationships with were featured prominently in a video series entitled: “Comeback,” which told powerful stories of transformation, redemption, and rejuvenation occurring across the country. 

The American Idea Foundation wanted to check-in on some of the groups that Ryan met, many of whom were featured in the “Comeback,” to see how they are still laboring to improve the lives of their fellow citizens. Here is a quick update: 

Beyond the Walls: Operating in Elyria, Ohio, Beyond the Walls Church was founded by Pastors Paul and Cindy Grodell after they turned their lives around through faith and hard-work. The Grodells then felt called to help others do the same and their outreach-based approach to ministry has since helped countless individuals overcome addiction and rise out of poverty. Beyond the Walls Church meets people where they are. They showing people compassion and respect, offering a helping hand when it is needed most. Speaker Ryan got to know the Grodells after learning about their ministry in 2012 and returned in 2016 to see how their efforts were progressing. 

Beyond the Walls captured the visit in a moving video entitled: The Gift of Redemption, which provided details on how the organization is making a tangible difference in the lives of Ohioans. John Hart described the visit, saying:

“The sanctuary was simple and inviting, but more industrial than corporate. There was no air conditioning, just fans blowing in the back to contain the thin film of sweat forming on a handful of staff and over-dressed convention-goers.

Ryan arrived without fanfare and made no grand entrance. He took his seat at two folded tables set up as an inverted “v” panel and prepared to listen to extraordinary personal stories of victory and grief.”

Urban Specialists: Bishop Omar Jawhar and Antong Lucky, two of the leaders of Urban Specialists in Dallas, Texas, continue to transform lives by working to end generational poverty and reduce violence among younger Americans. Their approach of “change lives, save lives,” was recently featured in the Dallas Morning News as they keep making progress to end senseless acts of violence throughout Texas. Ryan talked with Bishop Jawhar, Antong Lucky, and other front-line organizations in 2016 about how federal policymakers can better address systemic issues of poverty and income inequality. Their unique relationship was highlighted in Forbes Magazine which noted that while progress was being made, more work still needed to be done.

Outcry in the Barrio: Led by senior pastor Jubal Garcia, the ministries of Outcry in the Barrio have saved thousands of lives in San Antonio, Texas. Garcia and his team continue to help those struggling with drug addiction and substance abuse in a way that preserves their dignity and provides them with avenues to get their lives back on track. The San Antonio Express News profiled Outcry in the Barrio and touched on the expansive reach of their ministry in recent years: 

“Those who come into Outcry in the Barrio as drug addicts and successfully complete the 90-day rehab program are eligible to enter the program’s leadership academy, which takes three and a half years. During that time, participants may be sent to minister in any of the other nearby Outcry in the Barrio locations across the state of Texas or elsewhere. Since 1970, locations have spread throughout Texas and Mexico, and into South America; in Peru alone, there are more 54 locations.” Garcia said.

Praising their faith-based approach in 2016, Speaker Ryan wrote in an op-ed: “There is a better way to fight poverty. I have seen it firsthand in San Antonio, at Outcry in the Barrio, a faith-based rehab program. There, they take drug addicts off the streets and get them on the right path. This isn’t a big government program. It is people helping people. It’s the approach we need to take around the country: see the person, not the problem.”

Local resident Steve Parkhurst visited Outcry a number of times and summed up their work succinctly:

“It was about a ministry, with a success rate better than any government recovery program can aspire to, doing what seems like impossible work. It was about neighborhood healers, first Freddie Garcia, then current leaders Roman and Alma Herrera, and every leader at Outcry who has ever stood or sat in front of a person who could be down to his or her last breath, his or her last moment, and simply said a prayer and led that lost soul first to acceptance and then to a safe place where healing begins. This is the stuff that leads to a renaissance.”

Rev. Dr. Deforest “Buster” Soaries: As part of his listening and learning, Speaker Ryan developed a relationship with Rev. Dr. Buster Soaries, who for decades was the head of the First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in New Jersey. With the help of Soaries, Franklin Township painstakingly worked to repair relations with the community and the local Police Department with the goal of increasing safety, protecting individual’s civil rights, and decreasing violence. 

In a 2016 interview, Ryan praised the effort as a template for other communities to potentially follow, saying in part: “Buster and other black leaders in Somerset, a low-income community, worked with local law enforcement to set up a group that has instantaneous communications whenever something wrong occurs. And they’ve got – they’ve basically fused and merged the minority community with the police department in a very effective way and they have a community policing system that works really, really well.” 

Soaries has continued to lead by example and following the killing of George Floyd, offered observations on how communities around the country could deal with issues of race, equal justice, and law enforcement. His comments are available here. 

These are just a few amazing stories of inspiration that are taking place in pockets of America each and every day.  At a time when cynicism and gridlock are pervasive parts of our political system, the American Idea Foundation will continue to hold up examples that show progress is possible. By looking to success stories in our communities, legislators can craft better and more effective public policies. 

As Ryan said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute: “We have an obligation to expand opportunity in America—to deliver real change, real solutions, and real results. And to do that, we need to stop listening to the loudest voices in the room—and start listening to the smartest voices in the room.” 

The American Idea Foundation is going to do precisely that. 

By: AIF Staff

The American Idea Foundation is founded on the premise that everyone should have the ability to achieve their version of the American Dream. It is why the Foundation works to promote public policies, backed by evidence and data, that expand economic opportunities to more Americans. 

Part of the American Idea Foundation’s work is to introduce free-market principles and policies to new audiences and forcefully make the case for capitalism. This work is particularly important with polls showing that socialism is rising in popularity among younger Americans. 

In keeping with this part of our mission, AIF President and former House Speaker Paul Ryan recently sat down with a group of students from his alma mater, Miami University of Ohio, to discuss the American Idea Foundation, why he was called to public service and the importance of working across the aisle on policies that break through partisan gridlock to meet the pressing challenges facing communities around the country. 

Some highlights from Speaker Ryan’s conversation with the students of Miami University’s Inside Washington program follow. 

On Jack Kemp laying the Ground Work for Opportunity Zones: 
“When I was a young guy, I worked for Jack Kemp. He was my mentor. Jack Kemp was a Member of Congress and a member of the Bush Cabinet who advocated for free-market solutions to poverty. I spent a lot of time as his economic guy and spent a lot of time working with him on these things. Jack was pushing a thing called “Enterprise Zones,” and it took twenty-five years but we got it into law and called them Opportunity Zones. 

“Opportunity Zones, the idea always was, to designate the poorest of the poor areas in America – by census tract is the best way to do it – and allow capital gains tax-free treatment, meaning that if you want to invest in a poor area and you keep your money there for at least a decade, you won’t pay capital gains taxes on it. The idea there is to draw in private capital, take away some of the risk on it so that you incentivize capital to these poor areas. Now, the concern that we’ve always had and what we work on at the American Idea Foundation is: We don’t want a bunch of money to come into Opportunity Zones and have it be used to regentrify or push poor people out of their community or make it someplace for people who want to make money. We want it to be a tool of revitalization to revitalize the people within those zones – so that is basically the goal.”

More Work to be Done to Truly Win the War on Poverty: 
“The War on Poverty was well-intended. It had some successes, no two ways about it, but it also had some failures. One of the failures is a mindset failure. It told the public that, “poverty is not your responsibility, that’s the government’s job.” And what we ended up doing was we segregated the poor. We sort of displaced them and I think we need to reinforce the notion that we need to reintegrate the poor into our minds, into our daily activities, into our vocations and the best way to do this is to reinvigorate the private sector to be involved in fighting poverty. This is also where I think private sector charities have a huge role to play. And so, I think there is a lot of work still to be done to get the right kind of incentives and the right kind of programs. 

“Another law that I passed was the Evidence Act, which is you use data and analytics to build programs that prove effectiveness for getting people out of poverty, because we have sort of just been treating the symptoms of poverty, rather than getting at the root causes of it. If we attack the root causes of poverty by focusing on opportunities, capital, and data and if we help connect the private sector, the public sector, and the philanthropic sector on strategies that have actually been proven to get people out of poverty, I think we can really move the needle.”

Speaker Ryan on being called to public service and pursuing solutions to key policy issues: 
“I started by studying economics and political science at Miami University. I did a semester out here at American University, because Miami didn’t have a program yet, where you took classes and interned a few days a week. So, I never thought I would run for office but after I interned, it led to a full-time job and I ended up working at think tanks in DC and working on the Hill. And what I realized at a very young age was you can make a big difference in public policy at a very young age…

“I loved pushing public policy and advocating for things that I believed in but I came to the conclusion, partly because my Congressman from my hometown of Janesville was leaving to run for the Senate and we had an open seat, that I wanted to be an entrepreneur in public policy and I wanted to really advocate for things. I concluded that rather than work at a think tank and hope that a policy-maker would put it into place, why don’t I just try and be a policymaker and try to put it into place on my own. And that’s really why I ended up running for Congress when I was twenty-seven. I figured that I probably wouldn’t win because it was a Democratic district and because I was young, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. I ended up winning the race.  

“So then, I basically spent the next twenty years in Congress working on policies that I cared about, mostly in economics. I ended up chairing Committees and what I realized was that I was able to put myself into a position to put the things that I cared about, read about, wrote about into law…

How the American Idea Foundation allows Ryan to continue promoting policies that work: 
“What I do know is I’m working on making sure that some of the laws that I wrote in 2018 are well-executed. I’m working in an area that I really care a great deal about and that is fighting poverty more effectively. There are center-right poverty ideas that involve the private sector and markets that I think can really move the needle on poverty. I threw myself into this issue mid-career, when we were coming up on the 50th Anniversary of the War on Poverty and I felt like there was a lot of lessons to learn and we hadn’t moved the needle nearly as much as we could.”