Written by Natalie Medley, marketing support coordinator at Televerde Foundation

A few weeks ago, Tina Schnaitman, Televerde Foundation’s support supervisor, forwarded an email to the team.

There was nothing dramatic about it. Just a note that said something like, “Please see the accomplishment of one of my ACI Rosa ladies, Tiffany.” Tina supports women in the ACI–Rosa program, one of the Arizona Department of Corrections facilities where Televerde Foundation operates, and she thought Tiffany’s milestone was pretty amazing and worth sharing.

Tiffany’s message was inside.

She had taken a small business plan course inside Perryville. Actually two of them: the intro and the advanced class. She graduated at the top of both. Out of 17 people across Arizona state prisons who were competing in the program, only two women from Perryville were selected to move on.

Tiffany was one of them.

The next step is a statewide competition where participants present a business pitch over Zoom. A panel of partners listens, asks questions and chooses a winner. The prize is a $10,000 loan to help start the business.

Tiffany ended her email the way you might imagine someone would when something good finally happens.

“I’m very excited to share this with you. I’ll be sure to update you on my upcoming pitch. Yay!”

It was one of those moments where you pause for a second after reading.

Because this is the kind of thing we hear all the time from women in the program. But every time it lands a little differently.

It’s also exactly the kind of moment the Televerde Foundation works to create. Through education, career training and entrepreneurship programs offered inside correctional facilities, women gain the skills and confidence to build a different future long before they return home.

Later, when Tiffany told us more about how she got here, she admitted the reason she signed up for the class wasn’t some big entrepreneurial dream.

At first, she just wanted another certificate.

“I was trying to accumulate as many certificates as I could before I leave here,” she said. “Just to show that I did something with my time.”

But somewhere along the way, something shifted.

“The more I went to class, the more excited I got,” she told us. “I realized this might actually be something I could do for my future.”

It wasn’t easy. There were tests, homework and a lot of rewriting.

“A lot of homework,” she laughed. “Writing and throwing it away and writing again. A lot of late nights studying.”

And all of it while working with fewer resources than most students have outside prison walls.

Still, she finished at the top.

The business she plans to pitch is called Massage 7. It’s a massage therapy service built around holistic healing. The idea includes mobile massage services, natural oils and creams sold online, and education about alternative ways to treat pain.

When Tiffany first started building the plan, the idea actually came from a practical requirement of the class.

She had originally wanted to pursue equine therapy for people in recovery.

But that option wasn’t available in the industry reports they were working from.

“So I chose this one,” she said. “But the more I worked on it, the more I realized it meant something to me.”

And then she explained why.

Tiffany is incarcerated because she sold opioids to someone who later overdosed and died.

“I pray for the person whose life was lost every day,” she said. “I promised myself that I would work to change the opioid epidemic when I get out.”

Massage 7, in her mind, is one way to start doing that — helping people understand there are other ways to manage pain without turning to drugs.

“Even if I help a few people,” she said, “I feel like I’m giving back to that family and to my community.”

Right now Tiffany is preparing for the pitch competition. She’s taking six budgeting and finance classes, revising her business plan and practicing her presentation with facilitators and classmates.

She wants to make sure she’s ready.

If she wins the $10,000 loan, she plans to use it to launch the business — to buy equipment, gather supplies and start building something real.

But when we asked her what this whole experience has meant to her, she didn’t talk about the loan first.

She talked about how she sees herself now.

“It’s changed the view on my future by leaps and bounds,” she said. “I feel confident and knowledgeable enough to take on much more than I ever have.”

And that’s the part that sticks with you.

Because when people ask what programs like those supported by the Televerde Foundation actually do, they usually expect statistics. Recidivism numbers. Employment rates. Return on investment.

Those things matter.

But sometimes the impact shows up in a different way.

In a woman who signs up for a class just to collect another certificate —

and ends up discovering a future she didn’t think was possible.

Or in an email that ends with one simple word.

Yay.

Because sometimes a second chance starts with something as simple as believing your future can be different.