Watch Our New Start Here™ Video. White Collar Support Group™ 400th Meeting, Mon., Feb. 19, 2024, 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT
Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc., the world’s first ministry devoted to serving people prosecuted for white collar crimes and their families, will hold its 400th weekly White Collar Support Group™ meeting online on Zoom this Monday, February 19, 2024, 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT. It is open to those directly justice-impacted only. Newcomers should register at prisonist.org/contact.
WEST PALM BEACH, FL, February 13th: Progressive Prison Ministries, Inc., the world’s first ministry devoted to serving people prosecuted for white collar crimes and their families, will hold its 400th weekly White Collar Support Group™ meeting online on Zoom this Monday, February 19, 2024, 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT. It is open to those directly justice-impacted only. Newcomers should register at prisonist.org/contact.
Co-founded by husband and wife, ordained minister and white collar attorney, Jeff Grant (Jeffrey D. Grant, Esq.) and Lynn Springer in Greenwich, CT, the White Collar Support Group™ held its first meeting online in 2016. Since then, over the past 8 years, the support group has had over 900 participants from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Israel, South America and the Caribbean.
Progressive Prison Ministries’ goal is to provide practical information, and spiritual and emotional support, to those who are feeling alone, isolated, and hopeless while navigating the white collar criminal justice system. Its objective is to provide guidance in finding a path to a healthy, reinvented life on the other side of what may seem like insurmountable problems.
Meetings are held online weekly on Mondays on Zoom beginning at 7 pm ET, 4 pm PT and last approximately 75 minutes. Each meeting is centered on a relevant topic such as preparing for prison, family issues, finances, careers after prison, conquering fear, mental health and substance abuse, etc. Members are given the opportunity to reflect on and share their experiences, to ask questions, and are encouraged to embrace group newcomers. The support group continues to grow with each weekly gathering.
“The White Collar Support Group™ ’s purpose is bring people out of the isolation that is destroying them, and into a supportive community that provides solutions. At the end of the day, if we can help people untangle themselves from their myriad problems and find a clear path to a successful, productive and joyous life, that’s a success story,” said Grant. “We have found that things go much easier, and better outcomes can be reached, when people with white collar criminal justice issues reach out to us early in their journeys – when they make us their first call – before they’ve made too many mistakes and used up too much of their precious resources. It’s the reason why, to celebrate our 400th meeting and the beginning of our ninth year, our new outreach initiative is called, ‘Start Here™’,” Grant added.
White Collar Support Group™ Deputy Director William Livolsi (Bill) agrees. Livolsi pointed out, “we don’t give advice; we share our collective experience. We have hundreds of support group members who give of themselves freely and share their time and resources with each other. It’s a beautiful, and extremely helpful, way to learn, grow, and get through the most difficult times of families’ lives.”
The support group and community have been featured in many national and regional media, including the New Yorker, Entrepreneur,Reuters, Forbes and Greenwich Magazine, as well as major podcasts such as The Rich Roll Podcast. Grant has also been a Main Stage presenter at prestigious conferences such as The Nantucket Project. In addition to being a popular interviewee, Grant has helped thousands of his community members navigate their past and push towards re-establishing themselves as productive contributors to society.
With both Law and Master of Divinity degrees, Grant provides a unique perspective of understanding about what community members are coping with and facing ahead of them. Grant himself spent almost 14 months in a Federal prison for a white collar crime he committed in 2001. In 2021, Grant’s law license was reinstated by the New York Supreme Court (GrantLaw.com).
According to Evan Osnos, writer/reporter for The New Yorker, “Jeff Grant is the real deal… I can’t imagine there is a lawyer in this country more qualified to consider the complex issues facing people prosecuted for white collar crimes and their families.”
Former Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, who served time in a Federal prison and is a member of the White Collar Support Group™ , said, “the group is a network of welcoming, non-judgmental, and understanding men and women who share their similar experiences in an open and nurturing environment.”
Complementing the weekly meetings is a blog on the ministry’s widely regarded site, prisonist.org, where materials are published for community members to learn more about white collar criminal justice issues. Its White Collar Week podcast has also become a critical source for this community, providing a platform for sector experts and for those that have gone through the journey. Guests have included current and former politicians, financial executives, white collar criminal defense attorneys, federal agents, judges, Hollywood producers and more.
About Progressive Prison Ministries: Established in 2013 in Greenwich, CT, Progressive Prison Ministries is the world’s first ministry devoted to serving people prosecuted for white collar crimes and their families. More information is available on its website at prisonist.org. Start Here™.
There is little doubt that Nike’s tag line, Just Do It, has been an incredible success. There is hardly a person in any corner of the world that doesn’t recognize it, identify it with Nike, and relate it to a healthy, athletic lifestyle of hard work, sweat and dedication to better themselves.
For a few years, our ministry and White Collar Support Group™ have used the tag line, We Can Help. Similar to Nike, our branding has been an overwhelming success – reaching out to people and families navigating the white collar criminal justice system and offering them a safe space where they can move from the isolation that destroys us, into the solution of community. Where they could be welcome with no judgment, get accurate information about their criminal justice journey, find sanctuary to share, learn, network and make important relationships, laugh at ourselves a little, and grow together to find new lives of dignity, joy and success. All freely offered by our volunteers.
And we knew that the key to this move was to be the first call, the point of entry, for people who have white collar criminal justice issues and lead them to the promised land on the other side of their legal issues. Before they made the mistakes that we all made. Before they ran through their precious resources that they desperately needed and need to navigate these shark-infested waters. To be the first call.
This was a revelation that things had changed, and we had to change along with them. We’d grown up, we have more experience than anybody, and we are now universally recognized as the leading authority in this sector. The world, and Google, recognize us as owning the term “White Collar Support Group™”. Of course they do. We are the first, the longest running, the biggest and the most helpful. And in order to be of service to our community, and consistent with our mission to reach out to others like us suffering in silence, we felt compelled to move from the passive voice of the branding of We Can Help, to one that is stronger, more powerful, and more authoritative.
We knew we needed to stand up, be bold, and be proud of all we’ve accomplished together. To take important positions, to advocate for them, and to dedicate ourselves even more to changing the world. And we wanted to just do it in conjuncture with our 400th White Collar Support Group™ meeting that we will host on Feb. 19, 2024 (Please join us).
I was psyched. We all were.
So, while lunching a few days ago at a new Asian Fusion restaurant here in West Palm Beach, I was explaining this concept to Lynn (for those of you who don’t know, Lynn Springer is my wife, partner, and co-founder of our ministry) and I could hardly control myself. My arms were waiving, the Pad Thai was flying everywhere. Lynn listened attentively (as she is wont to do) and then confidently, knowingly leaned forward (as she is wont to do) and told me she had it! She had our new tag line and branding.
Start Here™.
That was it! Start Here™. Hard stop. It was such a powerful statement. In two words it encapsulated everything we stood for, everything we wanted, everything we needed, everything we worked our butts off to achieve over the past eight years. And in the spirit of less is more, boiling it down to two words was masterful. A stroke of genius. Start Here™ was it!
We finished up our lunch, drove quickly home, and I got on the phones. We have it, we have it! And every single group member I spoke with agreed. Start Here™ was perfect.
So, my dear friends and Fellow Travelers, there you have it. Start Here™ is our new tag line and branding. Start Here™ is us. Start Here™ is what we believe in. Start Here™ is our big, bold statement of how we aspire to be of highest, best use to our white collar community. And Start Here™ is our vision for a bright, successful future for us all.
And, to get to this future full of hope and promise, all we have to do is one simple, but critical, thing: Start Here™.
*PS, thank you Lynn, thank you Nike and thank you to all of you for eight wonderful years.
