BLOOMING WITH SECOND CHANCES
Julyssa Guevara, a licensed clinical social worker, and Gladys Preciado, an art history professor, sat waiting for students to arrive for the event that the two organized. The event, titled “Blooming With Second Chances, was a “workshop to help embrace new opportunities, heal from past setbacks and build community,” in the Student Equity Center at Santa Monica College (SMC) on Tuesday, April 22.
Guevara and Preciado were both inspired by their mutual love of art to co-host a workshop dedicated to formerly incarcerated students to share their experiences with the justice system through their art, in recognition of April being Second Chance Month.
“(Second Chance Month) offers folks who have been formerly incarcerated a second chance to come into the community, reintegrate, and really have the opportunity to bloom and be part of society without being stigmatized or living with a label,” Guevara said.
Preciado said, “It's just about honoring those individuals – honoring their dignity, focusing on second chances, and anyone who is in allyship with them and wants to contribute to the conversation too.”
The theme was to emulate the process of bloom, so everyone was instructed to create flowers out of the materials provided: wrapping paper, pipe cleaners and white paper cups. After they constructed the flowers, they were instructed to meditate on a message that was important to them before writing it down on the surface of the cup.
“For me it was more of ... a general thing,” Preciado said. “And so I just wrote: Our path does not define us. We are worthy of healing. We are worthy of safety. And we are worthy of love.”
Preciado continued, “My brothers have been in and out of jail and so I was just thinking about how that’s affected my family. So that’s kind of what I was thinking as I was creating this.”
For others, such as Leonard Flores, a student at SMC, the cup represented something deeply spiritual. “Mine says, ‘Freedom and Perfect Courtesy.’ It is found in a Bible verse where we're called to have courtesy toward those who may harm us,” Flores said. “It's a reflection to be able to forgive those who don't have the same understanding.”
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Second Chance Month began in 2017 as a bipartisan resolution from the U.S. Senate and has since grown into a national movement, with support from federal, state, and local agencies, nonprofits and advocates across the country.
Approximately 77 million Americans, or 1 in every 3 adults, have a criminal record. A criminal record — which can be an arrest record, criminal charges, or a conviction — creates barriers to jobs, occupational licensing, housing, and higher education opportunities, according to a statistic founded by the National Council of State Legislators, a bipartisan organization that provides research, technical assistance and training to support legislators and staff in all 50 states.
This statistic is a testament to why Second Chance Month was proposed in the first place. Advocates for this initiative challenge the perimeters of what it means for a society to provide second chances to people who have made mistakes.
It also raises a number of other questions: What does it mean to give a second chance to somebody? What does it mean to receive it? Does everyone deserve a second chance? How many chances should we give out to people?
To Guevara, second chances are very personal. “No matter what happens, it's about being able to bloom from that, and being able to be reminded that things are beautiful in life,” she said.
“Sometimes we know that we can get stuck and there are people around who are willing to help you bloom and nourish you as well — who will be offering first, second, third, fourth, infinite amounts of chances," Guevara said. “Because in reality, only in community is where we can bloom, where we can grow, and where we can feel united and happy about meeting our goals.”
As the afternoon went on and the event began to come to a close, the remaining group sat in a circle to share some of their thoughts on what second chances meant to them.
“My brother committed suicide shortly after the pandemic and my dad died on Christmas Eve,” said one SMC student, who wished to remain anonymous for privacy reasons. “We have a fourth, fifth, millionth chance every day to be alive and breathing. At the end of the day, once we transition up outta here, we’ll all know the truth. There is one God that we all have to answer to. Love one another. Take a chance. We’re blessed. We’re alive. We’re free. That’s what my mom always says: ‘I’m alive and free.’”
Flores shared a little about himself and how he saw second chances. “My whole family, basically, was in and out of prison — my direct family,” Flores said. “And then my oldest brother, he's basically been in prison his whole life, since he was a juvenile. So, considering I have such a large family, and I'm only able to see not even half of them, it’s disheartening.”
He said, “I just like that aspect of giving people chances, and understanding that we're all going to need chances to find our way out of whatever we were raised in.”
Guevara and Preciado plan to continue to do group activities and workshops together in the future, and foster a space for people who have had these experiences to be able to express themselves through art and dialogue.
“We can maybe not like someone but it doesn’t mean we hate them,” Guevara said. “We can coexist without having the same thought process. We can coexist without having the same experience. We’re still human, and we deserve the opportunity to be loved. Because why not?”