From the Founder’s Desk: Momentum…

Sometimes life just throws you multiple curveballs in a row.

I knew from the beginning that building Reentry Infrastructure Systems and Services (RISS) would be a massive undertaking. I also knew that momentum would matter. When you're building something from nothing, every conversation, every meeting, every page written, every relationship developed builds on the one before it. When that momentum gets interrupted, it takes real effort to get moving again.

The reality is that, right now, I am RISS.

Our seed funding campaign is less than two months old. Initial meetings and conversations are just beginning. Until funding allows us to build a team, every aspect of this organization falls on me. I'm serving as executive director, fundraiser, grant researcher, business planner, website designer, writer, editor, social media manager, marketing director, community outreach coordinator, partnership developer, researcher, and project manager. There are probably a few other job titles I'm forgetting.

That's not a complaint. It's simply the reality of building an organization from the ground up. The resources aren't there yet to hire anyone else.

At the same time, bills still have to be paid.

That means my full-time job is still outside of RISS. Earlier this summer, the company I work for changed ownership and implemented significant operational changes. Overnight, I found myself relearning routes, procedures, and day-to-day operations while working an overnight schedule. It substantially increased the time and energy required just to complete my regular job.

Before I had fully adapted to those changes, I suffered a retinal detachment.

The emergency surgery was successful, but it required weeks of recovery, followed by the process of returning to work and catching back up with all of the operational changes that had happened while I was away.

Taken individually, none of those events would have stopped this project.

Together, they represented a significant disruption. And disruption has a way of stealing momentum.

I've also been reminded that life doesn't happen in neat, isolated categories. Many people—including me—manage chronic health conditions while trying to work, pay bills, care for family, and pursue long-term goals. Whether that's diabetes, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, or something entirely different, there is an additional layer of planning, discipline, and adjustment that most people never see. It isn't an excuse, and it doesn't lower the standard. It simply means that sometimes maintaining forward momentum requires considerably more effort than it appears from the outside.

Ironically, that experience has reinforced one of the core principles behind RISS.

People rarely fail because of a single catastrophic event. More often, they lose momentum through a series of disruptions that compound over time until moving forward becomes exponentially harder. Stable housing. Reliable transportation. Consistent healthcare. Employment. Community. These aren't just services—they're the infrastructure that protects momentum.

That's exactly what we're building.

The past several weeks may have slowed my pace, but they haven't changed my direction. If anything, they've strengthened my conviction that the work we're doing matters. The conversations are continuing. The business plan continues to evolve. Outreach is expanding. New relationships are being built. Every day, we move one step closer to creating a place where people leaving incarceration have the stability they need to build lasting success.

Momentum may have been interrupted.

It wasn't lost.

And we're moving forward again.