Name: Pauline Rogers
Profession/ Title/ Name of Business: Nonprofit business owner/Executive Director/Reaching and Educating for Community Hope Foundation using acronyms RECH {pronounced reach}.
Hometown City/ State: Jackson, Mississippi
When did you know that you wanted to be an entrepreneur?
I literally knew as a child I wanted to be an Entrepreneur. That life was in the DNA of those I saw around me.
Who have been some of your role models in business?
My Father, mother and grandmother as well as uncles and aunts who were role models and trend setters I was privy to watching and observing growing up in Vancleave, MS.
Going out on your own is not easy. What helped you to take the first step?
I don’t believe anyone ever truly go out on their own. My mentors who helped me take my first step in the work I currently do were the late Frank Collins Horton, Joyce C. Horton and Wendy Dorothy Burrage Hatcher. Mrs. Horton while I was sitting in the County jail waiting for the completion of the new Rankin County prison literally put my feet in her hands and prayed over me, and the steps I would make.
Mrs. Hatcher, the first woman hired to be a senior Chaplain by the Mississippi Department of Corrections hired me to work for her, mentored me and help me reintegrate back into society. We named our first SAFE reentry home for women coming home in her honor. There is rarely if ever a day that passes when I step in for work that these people are stepping with me.
How important was learning or honing your craft to your success?
My lived experience of incarceration and the lived experience of my peers continues to educate me and direct me in our craftiness to success.
Fear stops so many from going for their goals and dreams. What helped you to overcome the fear?
Fear for me has become a welcome expectancy. I have come to notice that oftentimes where fear is absent is sometime an indicator that my aim was too low. I trust GOD and totally rely on him to push through fear because sometimes this fear is a friend that feels like a foe. I rely on wisdom for direction when this fear clouds our decision.
You are part of Mississippi Success’ 25 Mississippians to Know for 2022. I have been so inspired by your consistency. What advice would you give to others who look at you and want to follow your path?
It is a humble honor of Cyrus Webb, a great encourager, lifter and supporter of others to be selected among the other honorees of his selection of Mississippi Success’ 25 Mississippians to know for 2022; all of whom I have great admiration who also are inspiration to be given this accolade and distinction.
My advice to others who look at me and want to follow my path, I say, there is no need to follow the path of me or others. Learn from us the ways for the things that are of no need of reinvention, but don’t fear recreation or new inventions, new methodologies. I equate it to shoes and feet. We can all have the same shoe, same size whether male or female. However, what set us apart is our feet, the feet give, “contour” to the shoe, the weight in the shoe makes a difference, the swag in our walk makes the difference, our mental process make a difference. My point is we are contoured for our own individual path.
• What are you looking forward to in 2023, either personally or professionally?
In 2023 I look forward to personally improving myself spiritually, educationally, intellectually, emotionally, publicly, physically, and financially. Professionally I look to expand our work in other cities, opening at least one additional home for women leaving prison. Architecturally, I look forward to developing some aspects of our reentry campus, building out our infrastructure, and capacity partnering with major corporations, organizations, Philanthropists and, being able to fund other great social services work.
Stay connected with Pauline here:
social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, Clubhouse @PaulineRogers or @RECHFoundation
Email: rechpauline@gmail.com
Telephone, 601-918-2970.
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