Home After Harm Graduation at Lancaster
Earlier this year, we held a powerful graduation for our third Home After Harm cohort on July 31, 2025, at California State Prison, Los Angeles County (Lancaster). The ceremony honored 27 graduates and three peer mentors who completed the program and celebrated their steps toward growth, healing, and transformation. Staff, loved ones, partners, community members, and peer mentors joined together for moving speeches, certificate presentations, and heartfelt reflections. We are proud of all the work our Home After Harm participants put in for themselves and feel honored to be a part of their journey.
Photos by Justin Bench Photography
“Witnessing our participants transform before our eyes, watching them flourish, evolve, and cross the threshold of graduation, demonstrates that profound change is possible. I encountered an extraordinary brotherhood of men who dared to rewrite their stories, forging bonds of community and fellowship within the Home After Harm Cohort. Their courage to rebuild, their commitment to one another, and their pursuit of transformation. This is what hope looks like — raw, powerful, and absolutely unstoppable."
—Adrian Vasquez, Parole Success Advocate at UnCommon Law
"This group of participants endured more obstacles than any group I've seen endure in a carceral setting in 34+ years of doing this work. Statewide lockdowns, extreme violence, and tremendous uncertainty didn't stop them from attending almost every group. Resilience in action indeed."
—Warren Hands, Supervising Parole Success Advocate
Assemblymember Tom Lackey prepared a beautiful speech and additional certificates for each Home After Harm graduate.
Thank you to our partners at the Mend Collaborative for their collaboration, and to Assemblymember Tom Lackey and his Director, Anna Zarley, for attending, sharing powerful words, and gifting personalized certificates to each participant.