Success Stories
Success Stories is an alternative to incarceration that builds safe communities by delivering TRANSFORMATIONAL feminist programs to Youth and Adults, with an emphasis on people who have caused harm.
Our mission is to provide an alternative to prisons that builds safer communities by delivering feminist programming to people who have caused harm. We envision a world free of prisons and patriarchy as the dominant culture. We build a world where harmful behavior is seen as a symptom of patriarchy to be transformed, in the community, by our program and others like it.
Success Stories Program was co-founded by two incarcerated young men, Charles Berry and Richie “Reseda” Edmond-Vargas at the California Training Facility prison in 2014. It was completely developed and ran by incarcerated people there and still is to this day. Both Charles and Richie, along with most of the original leadership team, have since been released and are now spreading the work all over the country.
The Program builds safer communities by addressing root causes of harm and violence by helping participants unlearn destructive beliefs and behaviors. Our program tackles gun, gang, interpersonal, and community violence by acknowledging these behaviors as symptoms of an entrenched patriarchal system. SSP builds protective factors that prevent harm and carceral pathways by first offering our 12-week evidence-based workshop series grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Interventions (CBI) and feminist principles where maladaptive beliefs start to transform. Then, our lifelong alumni program provides community connections, learning, and resource support through peer pods that nurture and continue that transformation. By addressing root causes, our program breaks cycles of violence, and promotes safer, resilient individuals and communities.