STRIVUS
This is a comprehensive, long-term residential program designed to improve life outcomes, and reintegrate individuals returning from incarceration. Focusing on substance use disorder (SUD), behavioral wellness (BH), and vocational skills training, STRIVUS equips participants with the tools and support to successfully transition into society as productive, employed community members.
Our bold, holistic approach synthesizes faith-based mentorship, clinical treatment, and vocational education, providing an integrated solution to the multifaceted challenges facing individuals' post-incarceration.
STRIVUS is recovery and reentry that offers a hand-up initiative built on the belief that no life is beyond restoration. Designed for individuals who are determined to outgrow the cycle of justice-involvement through new-life construction, STRIVUS offers a 9-month opportunity campus that combines vocational training, behavioral health recovery, and faith-engaged identity transformation. Real change is forged through radical responsibility, brotherhood, purpose-driven living, and Christ-centered hope.
STRIVUS is NOT a shelter. —Those that receive and accept the invitation to enroll will be expected to be the primary participate in the building of their own life's model. We will be there to equip, encourage, and empower them along the journey.
Through trade certification programs, life skills training, emotional healing, and spiritual mentorship, they are prepared to return to society not as repeat offenders, but as advocates with the tools and purpose to lead.
STRIVUS' model is built by those who have lived the struggle and overcome it. Led by formerly incarcerated and credentialed leaders, supported by clinical professionals, and sustained by community partnerships, STRIVUS is more than a program — it is a forge for true second chances.
We believe that when broken people are given the tools, the truth, and the opportunity to rise, they don’t just reclaim their lives — they rebuild their families, their neighborhoods, and their communities.
At STRIVUS, we don’t rescue. We resurrect. Through Christ, through effort, and through a brotherhood of accountability, we are raising up a generation of transformed lives ready to change the world.
A testament to the strength, resilience, and unyielding spirit of Liberty, refined in the enduring power of fire and grace that has restored my soul.
⭐ FOUNDER’S STATEMENT — Sonya Waites
Before Strivus was ever written on paper, it existed within the pages of my life. There was no formal classroom, no whiteboard, or conference room.
After miles of childhood tragedy, choice-created chaos, and addiction laced through self-medication like a mask of soothing salve, I am the first graduate of the Strivus model. As Founder, I serve as living proof that people do not transform because they are punished, imprisoned, coerced, badgered, etc. Lasting change happens when they finally find something better.
Hi, I am Sonya, tested, qualified, and made ready by the Grace of God, through the long years of struggle, battle scars of addiction and abuse, and the hollows of mental anguish.
The same Sonya that looks in the mirror today and sees redemption looking back at me. Sonya, a registered WOSB, disaster relief first responder. I own my past, and my future, and I stand in the gap today as founder of Strivus, proof of the model before it ever had a name.
I spent years of my life learning what real transformation requires.
Regardless of the number and the labels, I am more than an ex‑offender.
I am a survivor. I am a riser.
I am a woman who made the decision to build a new life and allowed God to transform me from the inside out.
And I am the first graduate of the Strivus model.
I am a survivor. I am a riser.
I am a woman who made the decision to build a new life and allowed God to transform me from the inside out.
And I am the first graduate of the Strivus model.
Inside prison walls, I discovered a truth that changed everything:
People do not transform because they are punished.
They transform when they finally find something better.
They transform when they finally find something better.
Punishment creates fear.
Fear creates compliance.
But compliance fades.
And the cycle begins again — the “circle walk in the desert.”
Fear creates compliance.
But compliance fades.
And the cycle begins again — the “circle walk in the desert.”
But purpose?
Purpose creates identity.
Identity creates stability.
Stability creates transformation.
Purpose creates identity.
Identity creates stability.
Stability creates transformation.
That is the foundation of Strivus.
During my incarceration, we built one of the strongest HiSET programs in the state.
Hundreds of individuals earned diplomas, reshaped their integrity, and rediscovered their worth; some of whom had been in special education their whole life or had very little education at all.
Hundreds of individuals earned diplomas, reshaped their integrity, and rediscovered their worth; some of whom had been in special education their whole life or had very little education at all.
I've mentored peers through their own addiction, facilitated reentry classes, led support groups, and poured myself into people the world wanted to put up and forget. Their voices now document the proof of concept:
“She turned incarceration into a mission field.”
“Her influence left a lasting mark on every life she touched.”
“She refused to give up on me.”
“She showed me the way out of the cycle.”
“She will create one of the best reentry programs in the state.”
Strivus is not theory.
It is lived truth.
The number 13 no longer represented twelve jurors and a judge. In fact, I discovered it's core meaning, one that was internal, not external. The Numbers 13 Curriculum was born from my own transformation — the moment I stopped seeing myself as a “grasshopper”
and started seeing myself as someone “well able.”It is designed to guide residents to outgrow the limitations placed on them by trauma, stigma, and social barriers.
Our vocational tracks — storm‑damage assessment, OSHA, drone piloting, woodcraft, hydroponics, canine‑training — are not just jobs. They are identity shifts. They turn people society once labeled as “vagabonds” into first responders, caregivers, craftsmen, and contributors.
At Strivus, we live by a core principle used by leaders across generations:
You can have more of what you want by helping others get what they want.
Giving, not taking.
Covenant, not coercion.
Commitment, not control.
Giving, not taking.
Covenant, not coercion.
Commitment, not control.
Love, in this program, is not a feeling.
It is a promise — a covenant to walk with people as they rebuild their lives.
It is a promise — a covenant to walk with people as they rebuild their lives.
I stand here today as a WOSB‑certified founder, a woman registered in SAM.gov, a business owner, a mother, a mentor, and a living demonstration that transformation is not only possible — it is replicable.
Strivus is not built on theory.
It is built on testimony.
It is built on lived experience.
It is built on covenant.
It is built on purpose.
It is built on testimony.
It is built on lived experience.
It is built on covenant.
It is built on purpose.
It is built on the belief that people rise when they finally find something better.
And Strivus is ready
...Are you?