Colorado Voices
A new class enjoys a Breakthrough Kickoff
Clip | 6m 55sVideo has Closed Captions
A new class begins ‘Breakthrough’ prison program
An emotional kickoff event introduced a new cohort of inmates to a prison program geared toward personal transformation.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Colorado Voices is a local public television program presented by RMPBS
Colorado Voices
A new class enjoys a Breakthrough Kickoff
Clip | 6m 55sVideo has Closed Captions
An emotional kickoff event introduced a new cohort of inmates to a prison program geared toward personal transformation.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Colorado Voices
Colorado Voices is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipSo you're going to communicate by looking into the eyes of the people across from you.
I'm going to read a series of statements.
When a statement is true for you, you're going to be right where you are right now.
Toes on the line.
We talked a little bit about how today is all about connection.
Don't think about why you're on this side of the line and why you're on this side of the line.
Be present in this moment and just observe what other people's stories are.
Do your best to set aside judgment and to focus on just what's happening in the here and now.
So Breakthrough is a 501C3 nonprofit organization that really prides itself on transforming the lives of incarcerated individuals, as well as shifting the community's perception of the incarcerated population.
So we take a holistic approach to that.
We have our own facility educational program called the Challenge and the Transformation.
But what y'all are embarking on in participating in this event today is to find out if you want to apply to be involved in the Challenge program.
Engagement with breakthrough for participants starts on the inside.
That is a 32 week long or eight month long program.
The first eight weeks are dedicated to soft skills for employment.
The next eight weeks of the challenge are dedicated to job readiness and reentry planning.
And then the last 16 weeks of the challenge are dedicated to the entrepreneurial mindset.
And while our participants all do come up with a business idea and a business pitch of their own, we really try to foster that entrepreneurial mindset to help them come out and really take ownership of their own lives.
So when I first joined, I didn't really know what I was stepping into.
It was just a world of the unknown.
As I proceeded to be in the program.
I found myself just surrounded with so many people who actually show so much compassion and love.
All of the volunteers and the breakthrough team just shows up, and every single time they just guide us with love.
I think what makes Breakthrough so unique is that you're bringing people together who might not necessarily ever be in the same room two of the prisons we work in are maximum security prisons.
And there are, of course, gang ties.
There's racial tensions that exists.
And when people come in and go through breakthroughs, programing that doesn't really exists, you know, they're all there together, learning and growing and transforming their lives.
Their world is very small on a day to day basis.
But then when volunteers come in, that really expands their their world view.
You know, they're meeting people again who they might not have met.
Normally we bring in formerly incarcerated individuals like myself, go in and have volunteered.
We also bring in corporate partners, you know that to come in and meet our population.
So we're going to start with a practice one, a fun one.
I like ice cream.
If you like ice cream, you stay on the line.
If you don't, you take two giant steps backwards Only Francine?
oh, my gosh.
We're sent to the Department of Corrections.
And somewhere down the line we have to correct what got us here to prison, giving the option from break through to be able to give us all of the tools and the skills to build that self-confidence and just being able to step into the community and help the young ladies and the women here is is an amazing thing for me.
For most of my childhood, I was raised with both of my biological parents in the home.
We bring in community members who might be uncertain about meeting with this population or even hiring from this population.
And I've seen people come in who've been so nervous, didn't know they wanted to do it.
Then they come in and they leave completely changed at the end of the day, because when it comes down to it, these are men and women who are incarcerated are people just like me and you.
These they have people who love them, they have friends and family, and they maybe they were, you know, a victim of domestic violence or a drug problem.
So it's just getting to know that person and know their story.
And that's what breakthrough does so well.
I've spent more than two years of my life behind bars.
I've spent more than four years of my life behind bars.
I've spent more than six years of my life behind bars.
Eight, ten, 12, 15, 20, 22, 25, 27.
Outside of here, outside of this fence, what is my life look like from here on out?
It's something different.
It's not just in here.
Doing the right thing is probably one of the hardest things to do while you're incarcerated.
But when you have that support, that unconditional support is where a person's transformation happens and they have to be committed to themselves.
And sometimes we need that help.
We need somebody to say, I believe in you, you are worthy.
You are somebody worth giving a shot, you know, a second chance at.
And that's where our transformation comes from, is just having those people who come in and truly believe in you.
When life gives you a house, move it.
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 1m 30s | Owning a home had always seemed impossible. Then a historic cabin became available. (1m 30s)
Meet the election judges behind La Plata County’s voting process
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 26s | Selected community members in La Plata County began training as election judges. (4m 26s)
Sheldon Nuñez-Velarde: Master Potter of the Jicarilla Apache Nation
Clip | 5m 45s | The Jicarilla Apache honor their longstanding relationship to the natural world. (5m 45s)
Rowena Mora: Master Basket Weaver of the Jicarilla Apache Nation
Clip | 4m 27s | The Jicarilla Apache honor their longstanding relationship to the natural world. (4m 27s)
Plant Medicine of the Jicarilla Apache
Clip | 3m 27s | The Jicarilla Apache honor their longstanding relationship to the natural world. (3m 27s)
The Jicarilla Apache Creation Story
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 57s | The Jicarilla Apache honor their longstanding relationship to the natural world. (4m 57s)
Clip | 5m 37s | The Jicarilla Apache honor their longstanding relationship to the natural world. (5m 37s)
Ducklings Told to Protect the Lake
Clip | 2m 35s | The Jicarilla Apache honor their longstanding relationship to the natural world. (2m 35s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 58s | Inside the high-stakes world of competitive pumpkin growing (4m 58s)
Temple Grandin analyzes undercover video taken inside Superior Farms slaughterhouse Denver
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 1m 54s | Undercover video taken inside Denver's Superior Farm plant with commentary from Temple Grandin (1m 54s)
The costuming family behind 60 years of handmade costumes in Colorado Springs
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 56s | The Saunders family once operated one of the largest custom costume shops in Colorado Springs (4m 56s)
Voters to decide fate of Denver's only slaughterhouse
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 8m 14s | Superior Farms, the city’s only slaughterhouse, would be shut down if voters pass Ordinance 309. (8m 14s)
Keeping tradition alive with the CSU marching band
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 49s | Inside the Colorado State University marching band. (2m 49s)
After 40 years, one of Colorado’s most challenging math competitions may be coming to a close
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 5m 19s | UCCS mathematics professor Dr. Alexander Soifer's Soifer Mathematical Olympiad turned 40 this year (5m 19s)
Behind the scenes at the Maurice Sendak exhibit
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 37s | Behind the scenes preparing for Denver Art Museum’s Maurice Sendak “Wild Things” Exhibit (3m 37s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 5s | The Kit Carson Café fills stomachs, job boards and the need for community gathering spaces (3m 5s)
Inside Colorado's newest high school sport: girls' flag football
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 44s | Inside Colorado's newest high school sport: Girl's flag football (2m 44s)
Painting a mural from start to finish
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 31s | Greeley painter, Alonzo Harrison, hits his stride in a new mural at WeldWalls festival. (2m 31s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 9s | Southern Ute Vice Chairman Lorelei Cloud explains the importance and sacredness of water to all. (2m 9s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 11s | Studying the ecological importance of ground squirrels at the Rocky Mountain Bio Lab. (4m 11s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 8s | Over 1700 elementary to high school girls explore careers in transportation and construction (3m 8s)
New suburban opioid treatment clinics aim to address a less visible need outside Denver
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 29s | Community Medical Services, an addiction treatment program, is opening six new suburban locations (2m 29s)
How Coloradans are working to overcome the political divide
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 8s | Braver Angels uses cross partisan conversations to overcome political divides. (4m 8s)
Chile farmer and cofounder of the Pueblo Chile & Frijoles Festival Dr. Mike Bartolo
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 21s | The retired CSU Fort Collins researcher has spent decades developing new types of chile peppers (3m 21s)
Colorado rural hospital relies on nurse midwives to provide quality care, keep costs down
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 30s | Call the Midwife: Colorado rural hospital leans on nurse midwives for quality care, lower costs (4m 30s)
How a measure makes it onto Colorado's election ballot
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 23s | Here's how an initiative goes from an idea to a ballot measure (4m 23s)
Water project advances Tribal sovereignty, lifts communities in Four Corners region
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 31s | A look at how The Dolores Project changed lives in the Colorado Ute communities. (3m 31s)
The secret collection in Rangely that they don't want to keep under wraps
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 38s | Everyone has a hometown, but not all have a car museum the size of a football field in them. (2m 38s)
For Colorado’s deaf high school volleyball players, the mindset is still the same
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 39s | The over 65 year-old volleyball program for deaf students starts the high school season (4m 39s)
First-of-its-kind mandate requires in-person voting in Colorado jails
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 33s | This election, every jail in Colorado will hold an in-person voting event for eligible voters. (3m 33s)
Why some Colorado schools have staff in firearms training
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 5m 52s | Schools, particularly in rural areas, consider training and arming school staff (5m 52s)
This Denver barbershop is staffed by formerly incarcerated barbers
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 51s | R&R Head Labs hires formerly incarcerated barbers (2m 51s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 42s | How poetry provided an outlet to Fort Collins Poet Laureate, Melissa Mitchell. (2m 42s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 36s | Local newsrooms in Colorado are shrinking at alarming rates (4m 36s)
Ken Burns on his new film, "Leonardo da Vinci"
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 36m 7s | Ken Burns met with Rocky Mountain PBS to discuss his latest documentary on Leonardo da Vinci (36m 7s)
Election officials held a secret conference in Grand Junction amid security concerns
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 2m 43s | As conspiracy theories and lies about elections spread, the job of county clerk gets more stressful. (2m 43s)
Chef Safari brings a taste of Africa to Durango
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 14s | Chef Safari brings African fusion cuisine to Durango, blending global flavors with cultural roots. (3m 14s)
Meet the sound artist who's exploring the symphony of nature at Rocky Mountain National Park
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 37s | Meet the sound artist who's exploring the symphony of nature at Rocky Mountain National Park (3m 37s)
Water to water, dust to dust in the Arkansas Valley
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 4s | Agriculturists unite with ag workers to sustain farms and farm towns in the Arkansas Valley (4m 4s)
Branching out: How one family’s science roots continue to spread
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 57s | The Inouyes have been doing science for more than 50 years up in Gothic. (4m 57s)
The Colorado Youth Pipe Band is training Colorado’s next generation of bagpipers
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 23s | The Colorado Youth Pipe Band is training Colorado’s next generation of bagpipers (3m 23s)
A Colorado LGBTQ couple's journey from foster care to adoption
Video has Closed Captions
Preview | 5m 9s | Meet this LGBTQ+ family and their journey through the foster care system (5m 9s)
NASCAR or family car? Street racers hit the track
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 3m 50s | Can racing on designated tracks curb illegal street racing? Local police hope so. (3m 50s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 43s | Matt Crane explains why election results in Colorado are reliable. (4m 43s)
Inside the tight-knit family of demolition derby
Clip | 2m 47s | For decades, Greeley, Colorado has gathered to enjoy demolition derby. (2m 47s)
What’s the big deal about Manitou’s mineral springs?
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 5m 13s | Manitou’s namesake water feature has shaped the town geologically, economically and culturally (5m 13s)
Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Pride and Drag in Navajo Nation
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 40s | On the last weekend of June, Navajo Nation celebrated Diné Pride at its capital. (4m 40s)
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 5m 4s | Incarcerated students find physical and spiritual healing in yoga program (5m 4s)
Baa Baa Buckaroos continue Mutton Bustin’ tradition at Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 7s | The next generation of rodeo stars get their start on the backs of sheep (4m 7s)
Dancing with Parkinson’s, without limits
Video has Closed Captions
Clip | 4m 1s | Boulder residents with Parkinson's disease find relieve and community in free dance class. (4m 1s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
- News and Public Affairs
Top journalists deliver compelling original analysis of the hour's headlines.
- News and Public Affairs
FRONTLINE is investigative journalism that questions, explains and changes our world.
Support for PBS provided by:
Colorado Voices is a local public television program presented by RMPBS