https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/blog daily 0.75 2026-08-26 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/blog/under-observation monthly 0.5 2026-09-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/9d829763-74f4-41b3-b3d6-5cc7a0090b34/5e31b0da-3284-471d-b974-d63e931e7492.jpg B2T Blog - Under observation I met Brandon at an interesting point in my life. The summer before, I'd spent my time refocusing on my relationship with the Lord, throwing myself into work, and planning a trip with my sister — the kind of summer where you're quietly rebuilding without quite admitting that's what you're doing. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I signed up for a dating site again, with zero expectations. I'd had enough social adventures I'd rather not repeat to know better than to expect anything. Twenty-four hours later, I connected with Brandon. I didn't know it yet, but that new phase of life I'd decided to launch had actually already begun. Four months after that, we were engaged. Then came a year and a half of marriage prep — not the kind most couples go through, but the kind that comes with navigating an actual bureaucracy: the requirements, the approvals, the waiting, that come with arranging a marriage through the prison system. And then we were married. Our wedding day was beautiful in its simplicity — which is exactly what I wanted. I never wanted a big wedding. I've always believed a big wedding tends to focus more on the party than the marriage itself. Wish granted. Ours was the microest of micro weddings: just Brandon, me, my parents, the minister — who happens to be his mother — and about six correctional employees. Did I feel like a bug under a microscope? Yes. Yes, I did. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/1787706492589-6YPEDEGOI8UQL8JFQ8NJ/20260315_192833.jpg B2T Blog - Under observation https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/1787706536454-6VJ7FJ3ESPZ5CRKPVG33/20260315_192915.jpg B2T Blog - Under observation https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/1787706552905-CI4EJIPIHJ0TBUKN8I04/20260315_192943.jpg B2T Blog - Under observation https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/1787706602716-S0ZG31GI9MIXI4T1LTJ1/20260315_193029.jpg B2T Blog - Under observation https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/1787706613234-83ISKW1QEDTP6JYJSL2L/20260315_193044.jpg B2T Blog - Under observation https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/blog/Blog Post Title One-3zaa9-zlxng-67tfc-6dyrm monthly 0.5 2026-08-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/2eb3cee4-9e9e-4393-a70a-9f2c9f515b1b/20260822_114925.jpg B2T Blog - Introducing Bridges to Transformation - From Kay I'm a public librarian, and that's not a throwaway detail — it's the reason this site exists in the form it does. Librarians spend their careers doing two things: organizing information so people can actually find what they need, and connecting people to the resources and community around them. When I married into a family touched by incarceration, I kept running into the same problem I was professionally trained to solve — the information is out there, but it's scattered, and the people who need it most, families of the incarcerated, people trying to understand the system, people looking for a way to help, have no central place to go. Some of that comes from what I hear standing in the visitation line. I talk to a lot of women out there, waiting their turn just like me, and everyone has a story — a mother figuring out how to explain where Dad is, a wife trying to hold a household together on one income, a daughter learning what a phone call costs. Those conversations in line are where a lot of this site actually comes from. Every family in that line deserves somewhere to take what they're carrying, and right now most of them don't have one. So that's what I'm building. I manage this site day to day: what gets published, what pages exist, how it grows. My goal is to turn it into a real hub for that 1-in-2 community — a place where justice-impacted families can find each other, where people who want to support reform have the tools to actually do it, and where our community here in North Carolina has somewhere to gather instead of staying scattered across individual blogs and Facebook groups. When I'm not working on the site, you'll usually find me with a crochet hook in hand. It's become my go-to way to unwind — something creative and steady for my hands when everything else feels like it's moving too fast. I mention it because I think that matters too: this work is heavy, and finding your own way to breathe through it is part of staying in it for the long haul. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/4669381c-b04b-48be-b1bd-5e1f01daa34b/FB_IMG_1787519085054.jpg B2T Blog - Introducing Bridges to Transformation - From Brandon What I aspire to bring to this increasingly large justice-impacted fellowship is 20+ years of lived experience across both the juvenile and adult Carolina criminal justice and social services systems — nearly 100 certificates and diplomas, a B.A. in Theology, and an M.A. in Christian Organizational Leadership. I'm still writing, publishing, and speaking from inside the NC Department of Adult Corrections, carrying both incarcerated and free-world voices to that table. My wife and I may be some of the few people with our fingers on the heartbeat of this big, beautiful justice-impacted community. We have the desire, the discipline, and the will to help facilitate change — and, honestly, to ease some of our own suffering along the way. But what's changing is who else gets a page here. I know men in here whose stories deserve to be heard as much as mine does, and part of what Kay and I want this site to become is a place for more than just my voice. One person's story is powerful. A community of people who have truly been rehabilitated, sharing what's actually on their minds, is a lot harder to look away from. Some of that community-building I'm already doing inside. A while back I started a men's group here — a regular space for fellowship, support, and faith, where guys can be honest about what they're carrying and hold each other accountable to something better. I mentor younger guys coming up behind me, the way I wish someone had mentored me at eighteen, and I keep books moving — passing along whatever might open somebody's eyes to guys who are hungry for it. I'm also writing a leadership book of my own, because a lot of what I've learned about accountability and growth in here didn't come from where you'd expect, and I want to put it down somewhere permanent. And I try to look out for the men I see going without, putting together care packages for whoever needs one. None of that costs much, but it's taught me that community isn't something you wait to build until you're free — you build it wherever you are. That's exactly what Kay and I want this site to become on the outside: the same fellowship, mentorship, and support I've found in here, open to everyone this touches. https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/atrisk-outreach daily 0.75 2026-09-06 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/atrisk-outreach/Blog Post Title One-3zaa9-zlxng-xbkmm-mwwsh monthly 0.5 2026-09-05 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/atrisk-outreach/blog-post-title-two-t5my5-k4xmd-47fwc-n6hhk monthly 0.5 2026-09-05 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/atrisk-outreach/blog-post-title-three-y3peb-4lwnz-5xrlp-2e2c6 monthly 0.5 2026-09-05 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/atrisk-outreach/blog-post-title-four-lr658-tcthp-7nadf-6g2z3 monthly 0.5 2026-09-05 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/home daily 1.0 2026-08-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/6ed83919-f44e-431f-85ba-5f83b649ee2a/pexels-kanishka-madushan-415994588-17010855.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/842e8f35-b339-4613-a0a7-de40f9c276e3/pexels-anastasia-shuraeva-7278594.jpg https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/about daily 0.75 2026-08-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/21fcfdbc-2af9-4593-8ab9-277124f621cf/Screenshot+2026-08-03+at+7.58.17%E2%80%AFPM.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/50e68238-a196-4216-90e9-8a011e589d76/Screenshot+2026-08-16+at+1.05.16%E2%80%AFPM.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/ec148be6-deac-42d0-b1bc-4bc816b7f790/20260405_101413.jpg https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/images daily 0.75 2026-08-06 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/reform daily 0.75 2026-08-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a7126e6eea0751978502fce/5a70aca0-3f5d-4479-89a8-16007e4d10b9/imgg-8ru-ne2d7r6s.png https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/take-action daily 0.75 2026-08-19 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/at-risk-resources daily 0.75 2026-09-05 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/store-1-copy-1 daily 0.75 2026-08-23 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/store-1-copy-1/vases monthly 0.5 2025-09-16 https://www.bridgestotransformation.org/store-1-copy-1/vessels monthly 0.5 2025-09-16