From the Founder's Desk: Why I Stopped Defending the Scale

Over the last few weeks, I've noticed a shift in my own thinking. For months, I felt like I was constantly defending the size of the RISS vision.

The campus is too big.

The project is too ambitious.

The number is too large.

You'll never get it funded.

I've heard every variation of those concerns. And to be fair, I understand them. When people see a large number attached to a project, their attention naturally goes to the number. Mine probably would too.

But recently I realized something. Why am I defending the cost as if I am proposing something nobody has ever funded before?

Housing is funded every day.

Transportation is funded every day.

Counseling is funded every day.

Healthcare is funded every day.

Education is funded every day.

Workforce development is funded every day.

Community engagement is funded every day.

Recreation is funded every day.

Spiritual support is funded every day.

Every single component of RISS already exists somewhere in the reentry ecosystem. The difference is not what is being funded. The difference is how it is being funded. For decades, we have largely chosen to fund these needs separately. Different organizations. Different facilities. Different funding streams. Different grant cycles.

The more I thought about that reality, the more I found myself asking a different question. If we already agree these things matter, why is building them together considered unrealistic?

That question has become central to how I think about RISS. Because at its core, RISS is not an attempt to create new services. It is an attempt to build infrastructure. Infrastructure that can provide housing, transportation, education, healthcare, workforce development, recreation, and community in a single environment designed around stability. Infrastructure that does not require residents to spend their lives navigating disconnected systems.

Infrastructure that is designed to endure.

That last point may be the most important. Most organizations are funded to operate. RISS is designed to operate whether it is funded or not. That doesn't mean we won't pursue partnerships.

It doesn't mean we won't accept grants.

It doesn't mean we won't seek donors.

It means the long-term goal is different.

The goal is to build an institution capable of sustaining itself through resident fees, campus enterprises, and diversified revenue. In other words, the goal is not to become better at surviving the treadmill.

The goal is to eliminate the treadmill.

That realization has changed the way I talk about the project. I no longer find myself asking whether the vision is too ambitious. Instead, I find myself asking why we have spent so many years accepting less ambitious solutions as normal.

Maybe that's the better question. And it's one I'll continue exploring as the RISS vision moves forward.