My name is Shanita Lawrence. I was born in Madison, WI. My mother was a single parent to three children. My mother wasn’t very educated, but she was strong and determined to make it. She worked hard to try a and provide for us. My father was nonexistent.
Due to my mother’s own demons’ things went downhill for us when I was at a very young age. Because of some of my experiences and several traumas that I suffered from as a child and adolescent I made some bad decisions that eventually led me to the penitentiary. A place of punishment yet, a place of growth that I believe was God sent.
The hardest part about being in prison wasn’t the confinement but the fact that I had to face the people I hurt. Leaving my baby sister was the most difficult reality that I had to face. She was the only person that felt loved me when no one else did, who I would have died for but left out here for wolves in sheep clothing.
Today here I am working with people just like me, that has been down the same road as me.
I often tell people that my life is 180, there have been situations, people, and even places that were once places of pain the Lord has placed me back in and they are now places of justice, mending relationships, and places of love.
I currently work for a nonprofit in Madison. (Just Dane formally Madison Urban Ministry.) Our Mission is to help transform individual lives and social system to create a just and equitable community where 99% of the people I work with are incarcerated or transitioning back into the community.
I am a resource specialist. My job is to help individuals be successful in their return to the community. I help with support, education, housing, treatment and transportation.
This is the 180 that I am speaking of. Those places of pain have prepared me for a job that I love and where I can give back and help others that are currently in a place that I was once in.
Shanita Lawrence: Resource Specialist. Shanita@justdane.org,