It has a two-fold mission — to help men change their lives in prison and then become mentors when they’re released.
“I’ll tell you who he is, he’s a punk, a thug, a selfish scum-sucking parasite,” the victim’s father Dick Underwood said during Champion’s sentencing in 2005.“I’ve been in prison a very long time. I’m very well known within the prison system and one of the things that are eye-opening for a lot of the guys in here is they look at me and say man, Charles Champion, I know him. I know how he used to be, and if this guy can change ... then I know that I can do it too,” Champion said.
“They just had a website and meetings on the inside when I stepped in,” said Jessica, who helps out with the program. The organization established a network of former gang members who now serve as mentors, targeting at-risk youth through community outreach events.