Jennifer Luther | 2021 National Crime Victims' Service Awards Tribute Video

JENNIFER LUTHER: My life was forever changed in August of '92. I was coming home late from work one night and ended up being robbed and shot. I asked the same question a lot of victims ask, why me? Why did this happen to me?

When you get to face your own death, you start to see that the priorities that you had before maybe aren't quite on point. I went back to college. I studied both criminal justice and human science. 

Then I started doing speaking engagements at prisons and at juvenile facilities and getting a lot more on their stories, as well, opening more of that dialogue. And nobody cared if they ended up in prison for life. And if nobody cares about you, what motivation do you have? So, I knew that I was going to be someone who cared, who cared about them. And in that moment, a little piece of my heart broke for this kid. 

I've had the honor of training thousands of professionals in the field of criminal justice, and I was able to be a part of the development of a new program called Shaping Success for Re-Entry, and we rolled that out first at one of our female facilities here in North Florida. And the focus was how can we, towards the end of their sentence, better support this really big transition from incarceration life to community life? 

These are our neighbors. So the more we can engage, not just them, but their families and their support networks, the greater ultimate success is possible through that engagement. And that when we come with compassion and when we come with empathy, we provide hope, and that can make all the difference.