From serving time behind bars to giving back his time to the youth, a Central New York man is using his experiences to help youth go down a positive path by offering opportunities he didn’t have.
“At the end of the day, I didn’t have the proper opportunities. So I found my own. It just happened to not be the right ones. So what I want to do is change the algorithm of how people look at redirecting youth,” said Robert Lucas, president of Voice of Da Voiceless, a non profit organization that helps formerly and present incarcerated individuals. Luca also started teaching a psychology communication class to grades 7-12 called CORY, carefully organizing and redirecting the youth. From spending 17 years of his life in and out of prison, he wants to use his experiences to change the narrative.
“I use a mirror in the beginning of the program to identify their self. They have to create the mirror, they have to create their characteristics and design. They have the first time in their life not listening to the noise around them and actually focus on them,” said Lucas…