Graduate Stories

The tools I learned in Truth Be Told help me balance my life today. These tools help me to have positive relationships and to surround myself with women who understand my struggles without judgment.

Truth Be Told is worth supporting because we graduates are real people, and we are making a real difference in our communities. We are women who are making the decision to refuse to be released back into our past circumstances.

I think what I am most proud of is who I am today and who I continue to become every day. Something that Truth Be Told taught me was that my past doesn’t make me who I am. I carry it with me as a reminder of where I have been, but I am not that person. I love me.

When I was first introduced to Truth Be Told, I knew instantly that I wanted to be a part of their Talk to Me Movement program. It was really a no-brainer for me. I have always been a mover, but, up until recently, I didn’t know that it was a part of my spiritual connection.

I started taking dance classes at age 3 and continued into my early teenage years. I think I might even regret quitting dance more than going to prison. It was my outlet. It was my “voice.” However, Talk to Me Movement was my first exposure to authentic movement, where there is no music or choreography. Despite my nerves, I learned so much about my secrets and how they still hold space in my body. I discovered just how connected I am to the hidden emotions and energies of other women as well.

My past incarceration affects my life in a positive way because I am motivated to give back. I use my past experience to help other women like me and to shine light on what needs to change. On International Women’s Day, my sister and I joined a group of formerly incarcerated women, and we marched to the Texas Capitol to support several bills that would help women in the criminal justice system. For me personally, I marched for the implementation of more programs within the prison system to help incarcerated women upon their release to aid them in truly succeeding.

Since my incarceration, I started a nonprofit organization called Passion for Prisoners because I wanted to go back into the prisons — and through the front gate this time. Running a prison ministry keeps me way busy and I’m sacrificing a lot, but I feel this is my calling.

Life is too short to not be doing what you were always meant to do. Recreate the life you want one step at a time. Nothing is certain, but the one thing I know: Until you do what you are meant to do, everything else will be hollow.

I took Talk to Me Speaking twice — once in the fall of 2012 and again in the spring of 2013. The experience changed my life in many ways. For one thing, Truth Be Told showed me how to live a life of authenticity. I was already struggling to understand who I was and how I wanted to change and become in my new life, and my Truth Be Told family has always worked hard to help me understand how to do that.

I learned that owning your truth is powerful, because no one can ever take it away from you. And if you accept all the facets of who you are, you will be able to shape them into the person you want to be. The only thing stopping me from doing that is me.

Whether I’m having a good day or a bad day, I am just grateful and happy. My grandchildren are my world! I work as an administrative assistant at Integral Care, which is the Local Mental Health Authority (LMHA). Each county in Texas has an LMHA, and we’re the one for Travis County! We provide psychiatric evaluations, 24-hour crisis interventions, medication treatment, employment and vocational services, family support and respite care, housing information, referrals and a lot more. I assist clients who have psychiatric and substance abuse needs. What I find most rewarding about my job is getting to work directly with our clients.

Truth Be Told is worth supporting because it empowers women when they are at their lowest, and it rebuilds them up and gives them something to strive for. Truth Be Told also offers such a great network (of other program graduates and volunteers) in the community to help keep you on the right track when you are released.

Life today is beautiful. When I was incarcerated, I began a transformation of my heart, mind and spirit. Thanks to Truth Be Told, that is still flowing since my release in November 2008.

Before September 1, I was a nurse at a drug rehabilitation center in Dallas, which was very rewarding because I was helping in an area that was my core problem — drug addiction. Drug addiction was the underlying reason for my incarceration.

However, on September 1, I transitioned into my new job as the executive director of Girls Embracing Mothers (GEM), a Dallas-based nonprofit organization founded by my daughter, Brittany K. Barnett, to empower girls with mothers in prison to break the cycle of incarceration and lead successful lives with vision and purpose. We partner with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for enhanced visits between our girls and their mothers to help break the cycle and build the bond.