My name is Tracey L. Fisher and I was born and raised in Philadelphia. I had an engaging childhood, where I spent part of the year living with my grandparents, and interacting with my family members. My grandparents, friends, and family members provided me unconditional love, and helped me become the person I am today.
When I was growing up, my parents were both business owners. My mother graduated from Temple University with a masters in Business Administration, and owned her own boutique, while my father owned several businesses. I was close to both of my parents, spending time with them at their stores, desiring to head down that path for myself.
After I graduated from high school, I got caught up in the so-called glamour of the Philly streets. I ended up getting arrested when I was 21 years old on a variety of charges, and was sentenced to 25 years in Federal Prison. While in prison, I had time to reflect, and become a different man. I acted as a spiritual guide and life coach to other prisoners, trying to influence a community of men that would not repeat the same mistakes that had landed them here.
I was released in 2012 and started my own non profit, Gateway to Re-Entry where I work with returning citizens to help ensure they stay on the straight path, and help them find employment.
Gateway to re-entry is a non-profit run by volunteers that is committed to community outreach. Our programs include re-entry for returning citizens, and those who are currently incarcerated. We also have a youth program that focuses on NO-entry into the penal system.
We currently serve around 300 individuals. We speak at prisons, churches, schools, and other organizations. We provide youth and adult mentoring, and tutoring and health guidance at Myers Recreation Center.
In addition to this, I speak to groups in our programs, and externally about staying on the straight and narrow path. I use a ten step guide to re-entry, where I focus on teaching our participants about: 1. Living Environment 2. Employment 3. Parenthood 4. Your Associations 5. Accepting Change 6. Setting Goals 7. Selecting a Mate 8. Believe 9. Recidivism 10. Remembering.
We host many events, including our gala fundraising event, which will be held on May 7th this year. This helps us showcase our work to the community, while raising funds. In order to help us create a more sustainable stream of revenue for our programs we are requesting this loan to help us publish, and market two books. The revenues generated from these books will be used to pay off the loan, and fund our programming.