Operation Making a Change — or OMAC — has been in Lexington’s community for some time. The organization offers mentoring, coaching and support and once a week its founder Gerald ‘Geo’ Gibson comes to the Fayette County Detention Center to lead a re-entry program.
Gibson says, “When I come in a lot of the men and women can relate to me because of what I went through myself. And so, once they’re listening to me for weeks at a time, they start of course trusting the process more.”
He says that when he first started thinking about this program, he was sitting in a prison cell himself. He’s been incarcerated three times. But now he’s trying to use his own story and experience to inspire others.
Gibson says, “I was tired of being sick and tired. I was tired of being that negative influence over people — not just people in my community but in my family as well. And so, I had to learn a lot from other people. So, I had to start aligning myself with the right people.”
Gibson says it’s important to build trust early on to show people what’s possible in their own lives. Vanessa Israel is this center’s re-entry coordinator. She says this work is important for people who really want to change their lives.