Last July when Dezmond Reams arrived at the American Rescue Workers (ARW), he sat in the car with his probation officer before going in. It was early evening and there was no one around except for Maezie Williams, administrative assistant.

He admits now that he had been nervous about entering the Fresh Start Program ARW offers for men coming from incarceration. Reams had been convicted of simple assault and had ended up at the local mission to take advantage of a chance to turn his life around.

“I ended up here by not making smart choices, by being a knucklehead, not really knowing my path, not really knowing how to handle the things that were thrown at me,” he said.

“And, yeah, I’m not too proud of how I ended up here-it was definitely a learning lesson for sure,” he said.

He said that he knew something had to change for good in his life and that it had to be permanent.

“So I made sure that, I don’t want to say that I gave my life to Christ because I was always involved with Him, but I definitely made sure that my next move had an environment built for God and so that I think led me here to ARW,” he said.

Now, about ten months later, Reams has graduated from the program, he’s employed and is planning to attend Lycoming College in the fall to pursue a degree in Business Administration with a minor in Spanish.

But, on that first day, he had no idea what was expected of him, what he would be doing and certainly not where it would eventually lead. Today he wholeheartedly stated “Trust the process-it works,” but then it was just a step into the unknown.

Once he entered the building on Elmira Street where he would be staying, Williams explained the process to him.

“She didn’t just leave me at the door and be like, well, here you go. It was like, okay, these people care. It’s my first sign that they care,” he said.

Then he went upstairs and found out where he was going to sleep. In the morning there was a devotion followed by where he would be working in the warehouse or maybe on one of the trucks.

“I was nervous then too. I didn’t know if I fit in anywhere. They kept putting me in different spots, like, oh, you’re going to work on the dock, or you’re going to work here. You’re going to work there. And I landed on the truck,” he said.

“So I ended up on Nate’s truck. And Nate (Dewalt) was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me. For sure, he made sure that there was always something for me to think about on the truck. He’s challenging me with thoughts like, you know, how do you react to this situation? I think our first conversation was, do you, do you pre-judge people, or do you wait until you have experiences with them to create your personality for them? That was our first conversation,” he said.

“So, just from there, it kind of spiraled into building this environment of healthy people, healthy, like minded people that supported me going in the right direction, and always with God. Then on devotion days, you know, just actually receiving the Word and being able to have discernment,” he said.

“You know, there were certain days where I prayed for discernment, certain days where I was super sad, super, super depressed, super angry. You see a lot of people come and go. Some people are not here to do better, and they will have no problem dragging you down with them if you let them…and they don’t stay long. They don’t really make it here,” he said.

Reams said that it was important to be able to discern who those people were-the ones that were there to work through the program and effect change in their lives.

Pastor San Astin, who retired earlier this year as director of ARW was also an important influence on Reams’ journey.

“He was my guy. Pastor Sam, really would change my mood, you know, if he saw me working, he had this phrase, like, my man, pots and pans, or something like that, yeah, it was funny to me,” he said.

“So a culmination of great friends, great faith and hard work, and eventually I started becoming known as, like a hard worker here, you know people could rely on me to show up and show out,” he said.

Seeking employment is a step in the program. Ralph Hobbie, who had also been through the program, had shared his story during one of the classes that ARW holds every Monday for the residents.

“Ralph came to ARW and was like, hey, look, we have a position open because he knew what the program was like. A lot of guys look for jobs and things like that. And so they were like, well, you know, Dez has been standing out, so we’ll see how that goes. We’ll let you do the interview, and we’ll see how that goes,” Reams said.

“I went out there and met with Ralph. He actually came in and did a speech once, and I remember thinking, wow, his story is powerful, you know, kind of similar to mine. You know, we both got to this program from a not ideal place and we have both hit that point in our life where it was like, I gotta do better for me, and I gotta do better for real. You know, it can’t just be, oh well, while you’re here. It was like a dignity thing-I need actual change,” he said.

He hoped that working with Hobbie he would get guidance in how to work through the program and how to sift out all the bad stuff. Ultimately they became friends.

Somewhere along his time at ARW, after thinking no one cared about what happened to him, he realized that there were people who supported him and wanted him to succeed.

“I would make people mad saying that because of how much love they gave me. Like, it’s not right to say that seeing how Nate went out of his way to introduce me to his family and make sure that I had somewhere to be for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And then, you know, Ralph and just everybody in general between Miss Jen (Black), Sam and Dawn (Astin),” he said.

Reams, who had spent four years in the Navy on a nuclear aircraft carrier, was used to structure, so the program at ARW was easy for him.

“You know, there’s a reason why they have certain rules that they have. They give you a packet when you first get here, and you can just throw the packet away if you want. But some of us read it because it’ll tell you, you know, phase one, phase two, phase three. Things they accept, things they don’t accept numbers to use, just just in case you run into some trouble,” he explained.

“There’s been plenty of nights coming from work where, when I first started where I was, like, I’m gonna be past 10 o’clock. I don’t want to be out and about. You know, yeah, they have resources for that. And so, you know, as much as it was the love and friendship of the core people here, you know, it does take some hard work. I don’t want to overlook that, because a lot of people I’ve seen come and go don’t utilize the resources that ARW leaves for you,” he said

“Just great people and a plan and a decision. I made a decision to do better at all costs,” he added.

Ben Hazen, the new executive director at ARW, was the one who first approached Reams about going to college, something he admitted that he had always wanted to do.

“He kind of just threw out, like bait, this is a possibility, you know. And again, it was one of those moments where I was like, I, you know, I gotta put my money where my mouth is. I’ve been saying for so long that I want to do this. Let’s do it. And so I went. And eventually I got accepted,” he said.

“So again, every step of the way, there was somebody that supported and cared about me and you know, I would not be here today without the help of others-100 percent,” he added.

To commemorate his graduating from the program, Hobbie along with Dina Maker, general manager at TownPlace and Annalise Bezri, operations manager at TownPlace, showed up to support Reams.

“He is an amazing co-worker and I am very, very proud to call him my friend,” Hobbie said.

“He exemplifies what this program is about. It’s about being better, making a better life for yourself and moving forward,” Hobbie said.