Brilliance beyond bars | Vincent Bragg + Joe Michael Nickson | TEDxSanQuentin 2022
A look into how Vincent and Joe leveraged the belief system that creativity without opportunity leads to criminality to create an advertising agency all about collaboration over competition. After being sentenced to several years in prison, Vincent Bragg quickly learned that some of the most outside of the box thinking happens inside the box. During his incarceration he watched as his fellow convicts were able to make something from nothing – books, music, entire meals – all created between four barren concrete walls. It was here Vincent realized the cells meant to imprison them for 23 hours a day were actually breeding grounds for creativity. Throughout the rest of his sentence Vincent naturally assumed a leadership role. Using his years of experience from the marketing and entertainment industries, Vincent organized think tanks, book clubs, led a cancer walk and developed an animated series. Years later, he founded ConCreates: a creative agency that crowdsources ideas from incarcerated and formerly incarcerated men and women. Now the same skills that put his creative teams behind bars are helping them find careers, and become contributing, creative members of society. Pure strategist, charismatic, and creative genius isn’t something you normally would think when you talk about a bank robber. But in the case of Joe Michael Nickson, a South Central LA native, his ability to turn media nightmares into marketing miracles allowed him to turn his life around. Growing up in the home of a logistics expert and a caregiver, Joe developed skills that took him places he could never imagine, and at 25 he ended up in Federal Prison. On June 6, 2005, he was sentenced to 20 years for having robbed 27 banks. While in prison he met Vincent who helped him to see the potential of his skills in the agency space and there they formed ConCreates. After 17.5 years, as he took his increased attention to detail, paired with his undeniable charisma, Joe went from navigating relationships inside to now finessing marketing tactics on the outside. Today that brilliance, once behind bars generating revenue driving campaign,s has moved beyond and the opportunities are endless.
The hustle | Cheri Garcia | TEDxSanQuentin 2022
Cheri Garcia knows exactly what "second chances" mean, and she has used her life experience to help thousands of others get a fresh start. Listen to Cheri's deeply personal story about how she launched Cornbread Hustle, a staffing agency like no other. Cheri Garcia is the Founder of Cornbread Hustle, a staffing agency for second chances. Cheri is passionate about helping people with criminal backgrounds and individuals in recovery find transformation through employment or entrepreneurship. As someone who has re-invented her own life, Cheri wanted to create a company to help others do the same. Before starting Cornbread Hustle, Cheri found her first transformation and recovery through inventing a tanning bed and starting a career in the TV news industry. She later found recovery a second time, but through faith and a sober lifestyle. With a strong background in marketing and PR, Cheri uses the skills she acquired to help individuals getting out of prison rebrand themselves to become the person they want to be and get noticed by the people they want to meet.
How to get a job with a criminal record | Zachary Moore | TEDxSanQuentin 2022
What is it like to carry the scarlet letter of a prior conviction into a job interview? These strategies for transparency can help job seekers and employers overcome bias in the interview process. Zach Moore is a software engineer at Checkr, a tech company based in San Francisco. Incarcerated at the age of 15, he spent the next 22 years of incarceration attaining an Associates degree and learning to code via The Last Mile program. Upon his release in 2018, he worked as a software developer for TLM before landing an internship at Checkr, and eventually converted to a full-time software engineer. He considers himself an ambassador for those currently and previously incarcerated, and looks for ways to increase opportunity and equity in Tech. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Living breathing ROI | Valerie Ochoa | TEDxPerryvilleCorrectional 2018
Valerie Ochoa entered Perryville with no prior business acumen and zero experience in the sales and marketing industry. She never imagined the future ahead of her included being a successful sales leader from behind bars. Valerie found solace in Televerde, a company partnered with the Arizona Department of Corrections, which offers employment and skill building to incarcerated women. It was at Televerde that she discovered her natural ability to sell. Valerie describes the pros of utilizing a correctional workforce and the potential she recognized in herself because of this opportunity. “Not only do I believe in myself, but I know that anything is possible and there are no limits on what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it.”
Journeys of change | Karen Hellman | TEDxPerryvilleCorrectional 2018
As the Division Director for Inmate Programs and Re-Entry for the Arizona Department of Corrections, Karen is familiar with change. Growing up, she never thought she’d work in prison, but LOVES her job, mostly because of the change she gets to witness – and help create. She is all too familiar with the sentiment that if nothing changes, nothing changes and knows the in order for change to happen, you must have, not only the mindset but also the skillset. This goes both for inmates and the Arizona Department of Corrections. “Change is like lightening in a bottle when it happens. I see it happen and see it happen often. In order to create positive change, you need to provide opportunities to both change the mindset and the skillset. Mindset plus skillset equals change a true second chance.” Karen is the Division Director for Inmate Programs and Reentry at the Arizona Department of Corrections. In this capacity, she oversees Education, Counseling and Treatment Services, Religious Services, Arizona Correctional Industries, and Community Corrections. In 1996 she graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice with Masters in Forensic Psychology and began working at the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections. Karen also worked in the ALPHA Program at the Maricopa County Sherriff’s Department. She joined ADC in 2004 and has held a variety of positions related to addiction treatment before moving into the role she now occupies.