[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We are honored to be joined by Tia Ryans, founding Executive director of F.O.R.T.E.

I'm saying forte.

It's an Italian expression.

F-O-R-T-E House.

Forcing Out Recidivism Through Education, and a 2023 Russ Berrie Making a Difference winner.

Tia, good to see you.

- It's good to see you too, Steve.

Thank you so much for having me on today.

- You got it.

And what is the appropriate pronunciation?

- It is F.O.R.T.E.

House, but I was excited to learn that in Italian it means strong, so I'll take, yeah, I'll take forte, too.

- F.O.R.T.E.

House.

I love it.

You know, Tia, I met you at the Russ Berrie Making a Difference Awards, which I've been honored to emcee from the beginning.

And your story, your story, your experience.

Talk a little bit about the challenges you faced earlier in your career and how you got to be where you are now making such a difference.

- Absolutely.

I did have a lot of challenges.

F.O.R.T.E.

House actually came out of a class project my first semester at Rutgers University when I was attending an NJ STEP class.

This class is specifically designed for formerly incarcerated college students, so that it's easier for us to transition from college inside correctional facilities to more traditional college campuses.

And of course, as a formerly incarcerated individual, I needed that socialization component to help me navigate, successfully navigate, college.

And it was during that process where we were tasked with creating a housing model.

And because not only myself, but also my peers, were faced with the collateral consequence of not being able to find housing, or find decent housing or safe housing.

I was excited to make it a tangible, real life thing.

Like there were so many people like us who needed housing, and no one else wanted to join the project, because they're focused on being successful, relearning their selves, adjusting to the cultural shock that follows an extended stay at correctional facilities, and just getting on their feet.

And I just took it on by myself, head on, and it took me some years, it took about five years for me to actually open a physical location, but we did.

- So let's do this.

I was being somewhat, I shouldn't have been flip by, in using forte, because it is F.O.R.T.E.

House, but there is something to be said for forte meaning strong in Italian, because you are incredibly strong in all seriousness, because there are a couple things about your background you haven't mentioned.

From the ages of five to 14, you were sexually abused by your stepfather, prompting you to run away very often from home.

How many different group homes?

- I actually don't remember.

There were quite a few.

I did go through the revolving door of going home, running away, ending up in the youth detention center, because I would get arrested for running away, and then going to a group home before I eventually went back home, or temporary foster care.

And so I don't remember the number.

I know that it's at least five before I started becoming too old to go to group home.

- And seven schools?

- Eight, actually.

Eight high schools, yeah.

- Well, there's a point I'm getting to.

You, unless my math is wrong, or my information is wrong, throughout this time, all these challenges, you maintained at Orange High School, a 3.8 grade point average?

- Yes.

That was my graduating GPA.

- Well, talk about strong.

How?

- I'll be honest.

I learned at a young age to compartmentalize, if that's the more appropriate word we're gonna use today.

And I had my home life, where I was scared, I was vulnerable, I was victimized.

And then my escape life, which was I did every after school activity, I focused on those type of things to navigate, well, to really escape.

School extracurricular activities, all those things kept my mind busy, kept my emotions in check, and I just kind of separated, and I grew up doing the same exact thing in high school, middle school, and I was able to separate.

So I mean, you can call it strong, but in a sense, it was just escape mirroring.

- But when you were incarcerated, you were also continuing your education.

- Yes.

- How?

And why?

- So I'm a first generation college graduate.

It was never talked about to pursue post-secondary education in my household.

It wasn't talked down, but it wasn't talked about.

It wasn't encouraged.

And when I heard other people talking about higher education, I thought, well, this is something that I could use to be a better person, to have a better life, to do things that I didn't imagine, to... And I'm happy I did, because that's where I got the confidence that you see today.

That is where I was, I became knowledgeable about different systems that I felt, you know, were a part of my life that maybe I didn't understand.

And different institutions that were intertwined in those systems.

It was another way to not only, I wouldn't say I'd use it as escape this time.

I'll use it as, I use it as a way to grow, to evolve as the person I am, so.

- And that was Rutgers.

- That was Rutgers University, Newark.

Yes.

- Big, yeah.

Big part of your world, right?

- A huge part to this day.

- Yeah.

The other big part of your world, and I'm curious about this, in terms of the impact on F.O.R.T.E.

House, winning the Russ Berrie Award for Making a Difference with some others, there's a cash award connected to this.

What does it mean to you professionally and personally?

- I'll be honest, my first thought was, "Oh my God, how many people can I help with that?"

Right?

So professionally, it just, I wanted to immediately reinvest it into F.O.R.T.E.

House, and I actually did.

So I was like, "Can you make two different checks?"

(Steve laughs) And I did.

They wrote me two checks, and I was like, "I need to give F.O.R.T.E.

House," I wanted to do...

So I donated half of it to F.O.R.T.E.

House.

- I didn't know that.

- I did.

(Tia laughs) I donated half.

- How did you get so giving?

- You know what?

I, it took a lot of work, a lot of self-reflection, because when you go through a lot of systems, whether it's group home, foster care, the carceral system at a young age, you're impressionable and you're angry about that.

And because I had an extended, you know, stay at a correctional facility, I had a lot of time to be angry, and then to realize I couldn't do anything about it, but to grow.

And I asked myself, I remember asking myself, "Well, who would I be if I had not gone through "all of these situations?"

And at my core, I'm just a nice, you know, I wanna be nice and giving and selfless, respectable.

And by me not being those things, by me being angry, or by me being sad, or by me, I was being controlled by things outside of me that weren't who I was at my core self.

So it was about 30 years old, I was finally released, and I was excited when I had this revelation that I had my own autonomy, right?

I was in charge of myself.

I was not being controlled.

I was not being terrorized, victimized, or anything.

And I decided that was when I wanted to be who I set out to be at my core, who I was meant to be.

And I'm ambitious, and I'm resilient, and I'm intelligent, and I'm selfless, and I'm giving, and all those things.

And that's who I am.

- One more thing you missed.

You're all those things and more.

You're strong.

Forte, F-O-R-T-E, in Italian or any way you wanna interpret it, it's F.O.R.T.E.

House, but forte is strong.

You're an incredibly strong woman and leader, and you're making a difference.

Tia, thank you so much.

- Absolutely.

- That's Tia Ryans.

She's making a difference.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

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Hackensack Meridian Health.

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Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

NJM Insurance Group.

And by PSC.

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