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Meet Victoria Thompson of We Steel Rise in South Phoenix

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Thompson.

Victoria, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I have always had an interest in Criminal Justice, starting from my teenage years. My Associate, Bachelor and Master’s degrees are all focused on Criminal Justice majors. After the completion of my Bachelor’s degree, I realized my specific area of interest in Criminal Justice was focusing on reform, and rehabilitation especially amongst women.

After I found my area of interest, I applied for several Parole Officer positions, and later accepted a job offer with the Department of Corrections of Texas. This was my first hands-on experience working directly with women who were incarcerated. I learned invaluable lessons from a variety of women related to their experiences and challenges in life which led them to prison. My experience helped me to become empowered to try to do as much as I can to help women parolees to have a second chance in life. I was surprised to learn that a large percentage of the women that that were incarcerated were veterans. I am also a veteran from the Air Force. I served 11 years and one day in the Air Force.

I left the Department of Corrections of Texas and began working as a Housing Specialist for the Veterans Healthcare Administration. My role as a Housing Specialist was focused on helping homeless veterans find affordable housing options. Majority of the veterans I worked with had various credit issues and criminal convictions, which made their housing search very difficult. I often had to find private landlords who were willing to give them a second chance and rent to them. After working with over 200 veterans with similar issues related to securing housing, I realized there was a major shortage of service and housing options for fellow veterans that were homeless. Out of the 200 plus veterans 40% were women. Based on my experience from both of my previous jobs, I realized there was a higher rate of women veterans that were previously incarcerated and now facing homelessness compared to male veterans. In December 2018, after analyzing my previous experiences with homeless veteran women as well as women parolees, I decided it was time to follow my dreams and start a Re-Entry program for Veteran Women named We Steel Rise.

Has it been a smooth road?
This journey has been amazing. I have experienced quite a few bumpy roads along the way. The bumps in my road to success were needed for me to appreciate the upcoming smooth roads and I look at my experiences as blessings in disguise. I think the most challenging part of my journey thus far has been securing funding and finding quality, passionate employees. When I first started, I wanted to make sure I had enough skin in the game before asking anyone to donate to a cause that was dear to my heart.

Please tell us about We Steel Rise.
We Steel Rise is a re-entry program for Women Veteran. I have a house that can house ten women and a computer lab building where I assist women in creating their resumes, searching for employment, NFR (write out what NFR stands for) certification in customer service, budgeting, and credit education. My goal is for women veterans to leave my program with viable employment skills, credit/budgeting awareness and the drive to promote homeownership and entrepreneurship. I’m most known for wanting everyone around me to be successful and win at their goals.

What I am most proud of as a company is, I am able to reach veteran women on a personal level. My company will instill the motivation and self for every woman in my program to learn what true self-love is, find and accept their inner beauty and learn their true self-worth. My ultimate hope is for every veteran woman enrolled in my program to learn the benefits of hard work, self-care, and the true power of manifestation to become the best versions of themselves.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I believe the recent swift in the criminal justice community is going to continue to move in a positive direction with more collaborations with community partners, Prison systems moving back towards rehabilitation model from the Correctional model that prisons currently have adapted. People are starting to see the value in giving offenders second chances and how beneficial it is for the community and the positive impact it can have on the economy.

Pricing:

  • A donation of 600 can house and feed a lady for a month in the program.
  • A donation of 1200 can cover the expenses for a Customer certification in retail from NFR guaranteeing a interview with several retail stores.
  • A donation of 60 dollars can feed a lady for a month in the program.

Contact Info:

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