MS Success Story: Pauline Rogers, Executive Director of RECH Foundation {MS Success Honoree}

 

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.

 What advice would you give to others who look at you and want to follow your path?  

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.

Stay connected with Pauline here:

www.rechfoundationms.org

social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, TikTok, Clubhouse @PaulineRogers or @RECHFoundation

Email: rechpauline@gmail.com

Telephone, 601-918-2970.

#MississippiSuccess Story: Pauline Rogers, RECH Foundation

 by Cyrus Webb

All of us have the ability to impact the world around us for the better. Just ask Pauline Rogers. It's been great over the years to see the work she is doing through RECH (Reaching and Educating for Community Hope) and through her daily example.

The two of us sat down together after an event at Dunkin Donuts in Pearl, MS to discuss her mission, the progress and the lessons for all of us.

First of all congratulations to you and thank you for the great work that you're doing to make an impact in the lives of others and to be able to stress the importance of a second chance. What has it been like for you, Pauline, to be able to do work that you're passionate about and to see the impact that you're making?
Well I'm a product of a second chance. I'm an ex-offender myself.  I have seen people no different than myself. I made up my mind that I was going to do something about it when I got out, and I'm still at it.

You're a living testimony as to what's possible. You have also not given up on others. How does it feel to know that you are able to share with someone else that they can have a second chance like you. 
Well it is a calling, and I feel that it is my duty to give back. I don't wish prison on anyone, but without having been an offender myself I wouldn't be doing this work. God calls different people for different things. That's what I'm called to do.

I'm so glad that we have platforms like social media to share messages like this. You work here in Mississippi where I live as well, but what is it like for you to share your message with the world using the internet?
It's like having your own personal Clarion Ledger, your own personal magazine. It gives you your own platform to use and to share your message with others.

What I love about your feed, Pauline, is that you're sharing your speaking engagements and the work you are doing but also the accomplishments. You're putting in the work. What does it mean to you to see that type of impact you're having?
Well, the advocacy part is good. That's what the pictures are about with the Governor and working on criminal justice reform. Now when we advocate for criminal justice reform, we by no means exclude the victims. Victims are real. What we try to do with the work is show that with reform we can make the community better by giving people second chances. We want to give people an opportunity to succeed.

So what is your next goal? 
We want to open up a transitional house for men. We have transitional housing for women, so to do something for men exiting prison is the next step. This summer we did camps for children of prisoners. The ultimate goal now is to create more housing and job opportunities for offenders that are coming out.

To find out more about the work that Pauline is doing and to see how you can help visit her website www.rechfoundationms.org .