Jocelyn Wallace

I attribute my success to my family's support. Because addiction affected my entire family, recovery has affected my family too. My mom, my dad, and my daughter all work with the organization. My parents received their Certified Peer Specialist Parent Certification, which is really important because they're able to reach family members who are going through this with a child. Because they experienced it with me for 26 years, they're able to give a perspective to families that I'm unable to do. My son doesn't work for the organization, but he supports it by doing clinics and classes for individuals to teach them how to properly care for their animals, because these are life skills that have been lost when you're stuck in addiction. It's just really awesome to see the support that my family's given to the community.

Not to give up, to not let a no be a definite. I got a lot of no's early on. I had to fight through a lot of stigma, and for a moment, or there were moments that I allowed that self-talk to tell me that I wasn't able to do this, that my past defined me. And that's a very untrue statement. So, some of the most important things that have ever been said to me is that my past does not define me. And that a no is not a definite. It's been an incredible journey, it really has.

As a mother who had substance use disorder, the self-talk that I used to tell myself is a lie. We can overcome, and we can do anything. We don't have to let things that have happened in our past, the trauma that's happened in our past, stop us from being a leader in our future. God can use us in any way, and we should not limit ourselves, not measure ourselves up to other women. Exactly where we are is exactly where we're supposed to be today. For years, I tried to measure myself up to other women who were my age, or now almost my age, and I'm not in the same place that most women my age are. And that's okay, because I'm where God wants me to be today, and that's okay.

The biggest challenges for us are long-term housing situations. Unfortunately, if you have had criminal involvement, it follows you throughout your lifetime, and it reduces your access to housing. There are boxes on applications, on housing applications, on job applications that say, check here if you've had a prior conviction. That stops a lot of the individuals we serve from even being able to be looked at for housing, or looked at for employment. We're really working hard right now in banning the box. I don't believe that should be part of who someone is today, especially, like, in my case. I faced some old stuff back in 2018 that I had to clear up after I celebrated a year in recovery. Here I am in 2026, a leader in our community. I received one of the highest awards in our community, the Sam P. Roberts Community Service Award, in the same community that I was trying to rent a home in. And I couldn't even get a house here. I was looking for employment after I got well, and I couldn't get a job because I had previous felony convictions. Today, in courtrooms that used to convict me for things that I had done, judges reach out to me in how to help people. So, that stigma of what's written on paper follows me. Even today, if I chose to be a foster parent, I couldn't be a foster parent. But yet, I'm trusted in courtrooms, in jails, and in other situations, and I'm a leader in this community. I do believe there are crimes that need to follow individuals for the safety of the community, but I believe that we should not be identified or discounted because we had to check a box.