in the community. i turned into a liar, a cheat, a thief. like the great man said, henry ford, don t find fault. find a remedy. that s what this class has done for me. it s a remedy. amy s been amazing. she believes in us. she never once had a doubt in us. even when others have given up on us, even i have given up on myself, she still believes in us. [ applause ] i m so, so proud of you guys. you all know that. ridiculously proud of you guys. you ve been my best group ever. i ve never had 17 people graduate. so that s really a testimony to the effort that these guys put in to finish. let me go ahead and hand out the certificates. we have sinclair drayton. sin claire. [ applause ] sean earles. barry roush. awesome speech today, really, awesome speech.
honored guests, my name is leonard heyward and i welcome you to the graduation ceremony of the turning leaf project. today, you will witness a variety of speeches, testimonials, skits, and poems. and it s our hope that we effectively convey our positive changes and ambitions to you. my thoughts control my actions and if i think better, i ll act better, and now that i know better, i ll do better. as a husband, as a member of the community, and most importantly, a father to my children. i m 25 years old. i ve been to jail 19 times. had no family, so got to think about somebody else. nobody to care for me, why do i got to care about anybody else? that s how i felt. amy changed my thinking. be the person you want to be. i was abusing drugs for years. i once trusted and respected man in the community.
program designed to keep them from returning to jail. it was created by amy barch. honored guests, my name is leonard heyward and i welcome you to the graduation ceremony of the turning leaf project. today, you will witness a variety of speeches, testimonials, skits, and poems. and it s our hope that we effectively convey our positive changes and ambitions to you. my thoughts control my actions and if i think better, i ll act better and now that i know better, i ll do better. as a husband, as a member of the community, and most importantly, a father to my children. i m 25 years old. i ve been to jail 19 times. had no family, so got to think about somebody else. nobody to care for me, why do i got to care about anybody else? that s how i felt. amy changed my thinking. be the person you want to be. i was abusing drugs for years. i once trusted and respected man
so this is a really good start for the impact that violent crime has on an individual. the turning leaf program run by amy barch is in the final weeks of classes. at the end of the course, we have a graduation. i always tell the participants that s my day off and it s their opportunity to run the class. they do poems, testimonials. amy asked leonard heyward to emcee the ceremony. looking forward to it. the pizza party at the end. not worried about the pizza, man. worried about getting out of here. i can t sit back behind the wall and watch life pass me by. my motivation is that i have a daughter to get back to. i m working on bonding out directly after graduation. i m hoping they call my name as i have the certificate in my hand and that s it and then i m out the door. check. tilghman kronsberg will also
with non-violent crimes don t come back to jail or escalate to more serious crimes. also confused. people that are the victims of crime want to know why. you ll hear that come up in some of our testimonies you ll hear. founded by amy barch, it s the concept of restorative justice. it s an approach that says it s important to bring people together of the crime and for us to get together and see one another as people and build compassion and understanding. that s where real change happens. when we choose violence as a way to respond to problems, we have to stand responsible for what happens even if that intent is never there. 8 years earlier, ryan kary was one of 12 victims of a murder and robbery spree carried out in virginia.