Last year, we featured former PPP participant Kali Lamb in a Sunshine Story. We were overjoyed to receive an update from her this month! Read about the wonderful life she’s building for herself, in her words.
I am now a paralegal with Community Legal Services. I work as a criminal record specialist within our employment unit, helping people seal and expunge their criminal records and apply for pardons. I also advocate for prospective employees with criminal histories who are illegally denied employment because they have a criminal record. I’m leading projects that I am really excited about to focus specific record-clearing opportunities in the Kensington community.
I have two dogs, a Yorkipoo named Dusty who just turned one year old, and an adopted pit bull named Zeus who is two and a half. With help from the Urban League of Philadelphia, I just bought a beautiful new house in Brewerytown. My roommate is someone that I was out on the streets with. He has been in recovery for about 19 months, and his case manager is also Brad at PPP.
I do a lot of advocacy outside of my job—last spring I was involved with the People’s Paper Co-op. We raised money to bail Black and Brown caregivers and mothers out of jail in Philadelphia County on Mother’s Day. I worked with the Liberation Foundation and was on a panel talking to men and women in PA state prisons about my journey.
I’m in the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition. We offer resources for citizens that are coming home and need a fresh start. I'm also sitting on the community advisory board for a study that is trying to find solutions for the gap in connecting women coming home from incarceration with resources like MOUD and PrEP, and I spoke on a panel last year in Dallas about centering lived experience in law practice. A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Innocence Network’s annual conference in New Orleans for men and women that have been exonerated. I was excited to bring back what I learned there to my job in Philly.
I stay busy and I keep my eye on where I came from and sharing my story with anyone I can. My story isn’t linear – I've had relapses, I’ve made huge mistakes. But I keep leveling up no matter what. And I give myself room to breathe and make mistakes and grow from those mistakes. I give myself grace today that I never allowed myself to have in the past. I understand that I can use my journey -- including my relapses and my mistakes -- to show another human that every recovery journey looks different.