About Take Heart, Inc.
Take Heart, Inc. is a non-profit organization established in 2019 in South Bend, IN with
a passion for serving youth who are most highly at-risk for involvement in the School-
to-Prison Pipeline, juvenile incarceration, drug involvement, and a life infected by
violence. The research done by the organization’s President, Michael Williams, shed
light on the gaps in these young people’s lives and neighborhoods. Youth who have
started down a violent path tend to continue on that path until it ends in a prison cell.
Take Heart’s research has demonstrated an effective method to change that trajectory.
Take Heart serves these marginalized youth by providing mentoring to them in both a
one-on-one format and by using Restorative Justice (RJ) and Peacemaking Circles to
strengthen relationships and build trust. The mentors who work with Take Heart are
formerly incarcerated individuals who have made meaningful life changes and are on a
positive life trajectory themselves. This work is being done with youth in group home
and incarcerated settings, and the agency is poised to work with high school students
who have been incarcerated, suspended, expelled, or otherwise removed from school settings.
Based in restorative justice methods and approaches, Take Heart is able to provide
mentoring groups for youth, and other services that will aid incarcerated or system-
involved youth. Youth can be served by RJ Mentoring Circles as mentioned above
and/or by Repair of Harm work conducted by RJ practitioners and program founders.
Further, Take Heart provides assistance to its mentors as well as other formerly
incarcerated or system-impacted adults in the form of RJ Circles that teach life skills
and philosophies of successful life outside of prison.
Our Vision
Because we believe in whole and healthy communities, the Vision of the Take Heart initiative is:
Underserved youth and the formerly incarcerated will be both restored and transformed through Take Heart’s work that changes their life trajectory so that they become thriving members of their communities that, in turn, embrace them and view them through a new lens.
Our Mission
Because we believe in whole and healthy communities, the Mission of the Take Heart initiative is:
Take Heart will help close the School to Prison Pipeline and restore purpose to the formerly incarcerated by building mentoring relationships with underserved youth through education, training, restorative justice, and the creation of opportunity.
Our Goals
Reduce the rates of our youths recidivating
Improve school attendance for participants
Increase graduation rates for the members of our groups
Assist mentors with building successful lives in the free world
