Their Voices

“I was shot. I went to prison. I learned to carve. That carving saved my life. Now I opened my business and I teach Indigenous entrepreneurs to turn cultural pride into competitive advantage.”

- Clayton Williams - Molded Fortitude (Empowerment Pathways)

“Thank you very much for coming in and giving such an insightful presentation. I learned a lot and I know my clients did as well!I think the presentation was very informative and engaging. Overall a great presentation that was well received

 —Zainab Khan,Community Employment Coordinator, Community Corrections – Fraser Valley Area and Surrey Parole Correctional Service Canada – CORCAN | Government of Canada

“The opportunity of being able to work with this facilitator and program gave me the ability to think of life through a different perspective as I thought when I came into institutional life that everything would just keep on going by and I would be stuck as the same person I was when I came in and not gain any useful knowledge, my thought process was changed when I started to do the work with this program it gave me the sense of purpose to feel that I am working on my goals with someone that has real life experience in successful business practices and gave me hope that I am not just a inmate but I am a human being that is able to work on changing my life for the better and advanced, stable release plans.”

— Hunt, Empowerment Pathways participant

  • “If I didn’t have this program, I would not want to wake up.  This helps me get up and walk”

    -Elliot

  • "This Indigenous entrepreneurial development program gives us incarcerated individuals a way of connecting to society through a facilitator that is here to help and guide us into reintegrating back into society with a purpose to help us build a business plan and resources to make it successful."

    - Hunt

  • “So it's nice to see that this support and the stigma, hopefully, around incarcerated men around addiction can start to be broken down and we can start to see everyone as humans and that we all go through things and support each other through that. And I think the work that you're doing going into these places where our men are and giving them an outlet, giving them knowledge, giving them access to knowledge that we otherwise wouldn't have.”

    - Clay

  • “I might not have my business going yet, but this program has given me confidence to reach for other things as well, like proposing my podcast and advocating policy changes. You guys EMPOWER us to achieve our dreams!”

    - Alex

“I kind of see a future where our youth, our Indigenous youth no longer have to go to prison or go to these places to meet an elder for the first time and have access to culture.”

— Clay

Indigenous Empowered Voices

“Reconciliation is the acknowledgement of historic injustices. By Moving forward we can engage in positive change as the foundation for our future.”

— Kelly

“Truth and reconciliation to me means accountability and recognition and the actions taken to make things right. And it's acknowledging the wrongs of the past, learning about our true history so that we can work together to make positive changes where indigenous people can thrive.”

— Kash

“In every adversity lies the seed of equal or greater benefit. Through these periods of intense challenge, we are given the choice to rise above ourselves and transform into something great. These are the moments where we make the choice to pivot every facet of who we are to reach for the stars”

— Kyle

“An elder is only as strong as his community. When someone in the community falls. How hard does the elder fall.”

— Tara

“Religion and culture are all the same. Even though we are different, when you look at it, we are the same. When you put them all together you have one strong diamond.”

— Sandy