Dec. 24, 2024

Second Chances From Prison to Purpose

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Join us on the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball as we explore the inspiring journey of John David Graham, founder of Good Samaritan Home. Discover how John transformed his life experiences into a mission to help men and women restart their lives after prison. From overcoming personal struggles to building a successful housing mentoring project, John's story is a testament to resilience and second chances. Tune in to learn about his past careers, his impactful work with the Department of Correction, and his award-winning book that captivates readers with its message of hope and redemption.
www.johndavidgraham.com
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome, um, to the Living the Dream podcast with Curveball. Um, if you believe you can achieve.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Welcome to the Living the Dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that teach, motivate, and inspire. Today, I am joined by the founder of Good Samaritan Home, John David Graham.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>John created this. This is a housing mentoring project that helps men and women restart their lives after prison. So we're going to be talking to John about that and everything that him and his company is up to. We're also going to be talking to him about what he did before he started this housing mentoring project. So, John, thank you so much for joining me today.

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> John David Graham>It's very good to be here, Curtis. Thank you.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Why don't you start off by telling everybody a little bit about yourself?

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> John David Graham>Well, the good news is I started Good Samaritan Home when I was, um, 53 years old. I had been through a series of, uh, ups and downs and career struggles, lot of detours. I'd been homeless at one point and had, uh, moved my family from state to state just trying to follow the job market until finally, at 53, my wife and I decided that maybe we can help people who are struggling more than us. So we decided to, uh, uh, open our home to certain homeless persons who needed temporary housing. And, and we started with just a part of our house, and eventually, uh, we were able to, because of my construction background, I was able to, uh, uh, remodel a house nearby, and we made that into an official shelter.

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> John David Graham>So we started off with that building, but over time, over time, when the Department of Correction came to us and said, we have men coming from prison who are homeless and if they had a stable place, we could, um, help them get a job much easier. And so we did that. We started working with the Department of Correction to focus in on men and now women coming from prison. And what they would do is that they would, uh, compensate us for our cost on a per diem basis.

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> John David Graham>So it didn't cost the community any money and we didn't charge anybody anything. And the irony is that the need was so great, we had to keep growing. And so Today we have 19 houses that have, can, uh, take on any given day, 80 or 85 men and women for temporary shelter while they restart their lives. So I'm just overwhelmed.

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> John David Graham>I'm in awe at how much this has grown and, uh, how we've been able to help.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Yeah, that's amazing. Congratulations on that. So tell the listeners about what you did. A number of careers before you started this. So tell us about some of that.

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> John David Graham>Well, I grew up in the 60s and uh, I'm not sure if you're old enough, uh, I don't think you are to have appreciated how unstable that period was. Uh, we saw everything coming apart at the seams. We thought, uh, Prince, President Kennedy was killed, Dr. King was killed, Bobby Kennedy was killed. Um, M. Uh, Malcolm was. And there was violence on every corner. Uh, in fact, I was even. I, uh, went to see a Girl on May 4, 1970, and it ended up in the middle of a protest, an anti war protest at Ohio State University on the exact day that the Kent State killings occurred.

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> John David Graham>So we had the National Guard surrounding us and, uh, I had planned at that point in my life to join the Air Force until that day. And after that, uh, not only did I not join the Air Force because of what we'd seen in that. That horrid event, but it took me 30 years to enter a voting booth because I was so disillusioned with what I saw happening in our country. And uh, so the downside is that that creates a great deal of internal instability.

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> John David Graham>And I was uh, at one point I went from job to job to job, even homeless in the middle of that.

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> John David Graham>But I had been a children's home counselor, a, uh, truck driver, a fireman, building, uh, contractor, a journalist, uh, until recently. At one point, before I started Good Samaritan Home, I even tried my best to be civilized by being a minister in a small rural church.

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> John David Graham>But I found that, uh, I wasn't civilized enough. And so that's why we turned to the street. Because I had come, I'd been to the street so many times in my own life, had made so many detours, that I had great sympathy for those who were already on the street. And so that's how emotionally and spiritually, that's what led us to our work. And vocationally, my background in construction helped me do the work because we had to remodel so many of these houses that were in the poorer sections of town.

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> John David Graham>But, uh, it was a journey we didn't see coming. But when it came, I felt the detours had prepared us for them.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, did you face any community resistance when. When the community found out that, that you were housing people from prison?

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> John David Graham>Oh my. It was. I, I thought in my innocence, in my innocence, I thought people would be supportive because we are, uh.

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> John David Graham>The data shows that by giving shelter to someone coming from prison, they are much, much less likely to recommit a crime.

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> John David Graham>But emotionally, it's very difficult for a Community to know that somebody is in a house who just came from prison. But you couple in the racial factors that our first resident was a black man from Cleveland, and we were in a white rural community. So it played into the, um, lowest common denominator of fears.

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> John David Graham>And, uh, the irony was that Reggie was his name. He said he was more afraid of being in a white town than the white folks were afraid of him being in that town. But I will say this, that it took several years to overcome that, uh, fear.

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> John David Graham>And I tried to present the data, but in the end, what happened was we kept our house quiet. We kept it clean. Our residents simply went to find work and they went on with their lives. They created no neighborhood problems. But most important, what we did in the winter, the first winter, we took my snowblower and cleaned everybody's streets on the block as a way of saying, we are not a bad neighbor.

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> John David Graham>And in time, in time, those critics were won over.

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> John David Graham>But it took many years because there was a great deal of fear.

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> John David Graham>Uh, the truth is, it reminds me a lot of what we're seeing today in towns like Aurora, Colorado, or especially Springfield, Ohio, where they were afraid of Haitians who were, uh, uh, they said, eating their cats and dogs, which was nonsense, of course, but fear creates a great deal of, uh, uh, mob mentality.

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> John David Graham>So in a one point, I even had police protection when I went to some city council meetings. It was so intense. But thank God that that passed. And those same critics who used, uh, to wave at us with one finger now wave with all their fingers. So I take that as a good sign.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Right? That's great. So tell us about your book. Tell us, you know, what we can expect when we read it. Tell us where to get it and what inspired you to write it.

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> John David Graham>Well, what I found was when I was trying to present the program and telling people that reentry and recidivism issues, uh, can be addressed by what we're doing. Nobody cared about data. Nobody cared because it was. Facts don't impress people emotionally.

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> John David Graham>And so what I determined to do was, somewhere I need to tell this story. And so, uh, I had always planned to write a book, but I had never been able to either sit down or have the. The. The ability to do it. The time and the ability. So I determined 10 years ago to just sit down and start writing a story of second chances.

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> John David Graham>Not my story, but it was. It would follow my. My timeline, like Forrest Gump coming through the 60s and, and coming from as a cripple boy to becoming someone who Was, uh, not just normal, but he was beyond normal.

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> John David Graham>But it was a long journey for Forrest Gump. And so I had a character called Daniel Robinson. And I followed him through the 60s, through all of the issues in dealing with the hippie invasion of San Francisco, the Vietnam protest, Kent State, uh, and then, uh, all the issues with race and civil rights. So Daniel went through all that and then ultimately he tried to do exactly what we had done. He tried to help somebody coming from prison. And that man's name was Charles. And Charles spent 20 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. And even though he had, uh, a fourth grade education and he had virtually no social skills, he taught Daniel how, how to forgive and how to create a new family. So there's a multitude of social and political issues that come into this story, but it's called running as fast as I can.

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> John David Graham>Because my theory, my belief is that there are many of us who feel like we're running hard, we're working very hard, but we can't catch up to people who started off so far ahead of us, uh, by birth or by circumstance or education. They just have it easier than we do. And those of us who are behind sometimes can't even find where the starting line is. That was Daniel. And in some respects that was me.

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> John David Graham>So, uh, what I found though, when we published this story a year ago, not only did it sell well, very well, but people have written back saying, I identify with Daniel. That was m. My life. Uh, I couldn't put the book down.

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> John David Graham>I had one 91 year old man say he was up till 3 in the morning reading because he couldn't stop turning the pages. It was so interesting for him.

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> John David Graham>So, uh, the book is in a nutshell, it's a story of second chances. But it's in a page turner format. So you'll want to, uh, I hope just keep reading about Daniel's story.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, you went from rejection to, you know, rejection to over 200 times to winning 25 book awards. Tell us about that and tell us how that feels.

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> John David Graham>Well, we, we like to think that if you, if you sit down and write a book, then you just submit it to an agent in New York and they say, my, you are just like Hemingway. I, uh, can't, I, I can't wait to publish your work. And the truth is that publishing is just a cutthroat business. There's very little money in it. Most books don't sell. And so I, when I finished my book after 10 years of writing and I had what My editor and I felt was a very good story.

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> John David Graham>We started submitting it to agent after agent and to publisher after publisher.

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> John David Graham>And everyone came back as a rejection because I'm an unknown, my story's unknown, and why risk their money on an unknown? And so I began to think that maybe it was not a good story. I began to believe the rejections until I came up with Don Quixote Press. And Don Quixote deals, like the name implies.

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> John David Graham>They tilt at windmills, they go against the grain, they take outsiders who have an outsider story and they tell that story. And out of that, when Don Quixote published it, we started getting awards coming in for inspirational fiction, for literary fiction, for, uh, the most recent one was, uh, uh, the American Writing Awards for general fiction. And in all, there's now been 26 different awards for this story.

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> John David Graham>And I think the greatest reason for that is the story itself. In today's age, where there's so much fear and there's so much anxiety and there's so much anger, I think people are hungry for a message of hope. I think people want to have a second chance.

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> John David Graham>And this story offers that. And it's resonated very well with the readers.

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> John David Graham>And also I now believe that I'm a good writer.

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> John David Graham>So it helped me too.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Absolutely. Well, what advice would you give somebody wanting to do a late start over, you know, kind of later in their career?

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> John David Graham>Well, we like to think in this, uh, if you look at Facebook and the Internet, and particularly the movies, everybody is handsome and young and, and fit and muscular and attractive. And, uh, you know, I'm 76.

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> John David Graham>And uh, inside I feel like I'm 36. But on the outside, our culture puts very little value on the elderly, as I think we have so much to offer. And we like to think that if you don't look handsome, then you can't contribute. And so if you want to start off, let's suppose you've been working in the factory and you want to write a book, or you'd like to move to the country and raise cows. Whatever you feel like is your dream. I would say, number one, do your homework, do your planning, bring in expert advice. But more important, if you believe in your dream, then don't let go of your dream, because it's not a sprint where you simply go out and suddenly you're successful.

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> John David Graham>Very few of us are going to found Facebook or SpaceX rocketry. Um, those are anomalies. But most of us are going to end up doing what I did and working and working and working through rejections because life is a marathon, and some days you fall down. But as long as you get up and keep running, you can reach your goal. So that's my advice. Keep running towards your goal.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Do you tell us about any upcoming projects that you're working on that listeners need to be aware of?

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> John David Graham>Well, uh, obviously, uh, learning. I, uh, work with Don Quixote quite a bit to publish this, because with an independent publisher, you do much of the work yourself.

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> John David Graham>So I've had to learn how to speak Facebook.

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> John David Graham>I've learned how to do videos. I've had to learn how to use the computers in ways that go far beyond, uh, typing into a keyboard. Uh, I had to learn, God forbid, to speak TikTok.

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> John David Graham>So, uh, that's been a steep, steep learning curve. But in the process, that keeps you young and sharp because you don't sit around watching television all day. You're always trying to reinvent yourself. But the one project I'm looking at right now, I started a sequel to the story called Requiem, which the term means a memorial for the dead. It's going to follow up Daniel's story. Ah.

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> John David Graham>But another thing I'm working on is because we have worked so closely with the Department of Correction for a quarter century that, uh, I've got this idea that people in prison have a story to tell.

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> John David Graham>They just may not have the skills or the. The means to express that story.

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> John David Graham>So I would like to see a way that we can get people to write not a book, but a story. And if you can get 10 or 20 men and women telling a story, then we can bring it together under Don Quixote and publish that story of, uh, of second chances from the inside. Now, it's only in the planning stage, but I think the idea's got legs because it's a view of not just prison, but it's a view of rehabilitation that is from the inside out. And that alone should make it interesting.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>So one more question for you. You went through all the social and political stuff in the 1960s. Talk a little bit more about how that affected you and, uh, how, uh, does it still affect you today?

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> John David Graham>Well, it was. We grew up initially when it was normal to have, uh, a nuclear bomb drill where we were told to duck under your desk in case the Russians were to drop a nuclear bomb. That was a normal expression in the 50s and in the 60s, after John Kennedy was killed and the violence, particularly relating to Vietnam, was a daily occurrence. Campuses, uh, were being shut down, they were being protested, they were being, uh, Bombed, literally.

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> John David Graham>Uh, and, uh, that was a normal expectation.

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> John David Graham>And then Watergate totally undermined our confidence in the government itself.

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> John David Graham>So I think that what we went through is very similar to what this, uh, generation today is going through. And my biggest concern is that they will become as apathetic as I did for 30 years. And I could have done so much more if I had used that time, but I just didn't know. So maybe that's why I'm so concerned about sharing this story today is I want others to, to become involved and to be active, but not with violence, not with anger and fear.

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> John David Graham>But, uh, uh, I did a great deal of work studying Dr. King's writings. And what I've concluded is that we have not had that voice of healing, what he called the beloved community. We haven't had that voice since he was killed back in 68.

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> John David Graham>And, uh, I think we desperately need to hear that voice again.

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> John David Graham>So I'm hoping that, that that person can rise up in this generation and, and bring the, the healing that I think all of us are looking for, this sense of reconciliation.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Well, throw out your contact info so people can keep up with everything that you're up to.

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> John David Graham>The easiest way to do it is just go to my, my, uh, author website.

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> John David Graham>It's@johndavidgraham.com One word and there you can link to Good Samaritan Home.

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> John David Graham>You can link to the where the book is and if you'd like, you can even download some free chapters from the book and just take a look at 30 or 40 or 50 pages of it, see what you think and you can contact me there. My website is linked and I'd be glad to talk to you anytime and any questions you may have. Because my whole goal is to share this the the story of second chance and the story of hope to anyone who needs to hear that.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>We'll close this out with some final thoughts. Maybe if that was something, um, I forgot to talk about that you would like to touch on, or any final thoughts you have for the listeners.

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> John David Graham>There's, uh, a phrase I use in the book and it's real simple. Just remember this life is written in pencil. We get a lot of second chances and we like to think it's written in ink, but it's not. You can get do overs. So always, always remember that it's written in pencil.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>All right, ladies and gentlemen, always remember that.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>Also, always remember to Follow Rate Review Share this episode to as many people as possible. Jump on your favorite podcast app Follow Rate Review Share if you have any guest or Suggestion Topics Curtis Jackson 1978 at att.net is the place to send them. Thank you for listening and supporting the show. John, thank you for all that you do.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>And thank you for joining us today.

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> John David Graham>Oh, my pleasure, Curtis. Thank you so much for just being, uh, giving me an opportunity to share the good news.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>For more information on the Living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurveball.com.

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> Curtis Jackson (also known as DJ Curveball)>until next time, stay focused on living the dream. Dream.