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Creating a Culture of Credibility and Leadership Among System-Impacted Persons

Fri, September 5, 9:30 to 10:45am, Deree | Classrooms, DC 707

Session Submission Type: Pre-arranged Panel

Abstract

Credibility is essential in professional, advocacy, and community leadership spaces—yet for system-impacted individuals, it is often questioned or denied rather than recognized as an inherent strength shaped by resilience, lived experience, and community connection. This panel challenges the traditional narratives that frame formerly incarcerated individuals through a lens of rehabilitation rather than leadership, exploring how credible messengers are driving change in advocacy, policy, reentry, and education.

Featuring formerly incarcerated leaders and an academic ally, this discussion will examine the barriers that system-impacted individuals face in gaining credibility, the role of leadership development over rehabilitation, and the power of reentry spaces designed by and for those who have lived the experience. Panelists will explore how credible messengers use their pasts to build healthier communities, disrupt cycles of harm, and provide alternative pathways for the next generation.

This panel will also interrogate the role of institutions and allies, asking how those with systemic power can support—rather than overshadow—credible messengers. By shifting the focus from institutional validation to self-determination, this conversation calls for dismantling gatekeeping mechanisms, amplifying system-impacted leadership, and building a future where credibility is not granted by systems, but claimed and redefined by those with lived experience.

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