Sasha had high praise for the entire Sheil Home staff, particularly Program Manager Tricia Townsend.

“Working under her has been incredible and I’ve learned so much,” she said.

Sasha explained that Sheil Home has recently been working hard to frame things in a positive way for the young men in the home.

For example, if a young man makes a bad choice while on pass, instead of framing future restrictions as punishment, they decided to look at it a different way.

“Now every time you go on pass, you have an opportunity to show us and rebuild trust with us,” she explained.

“I think that creates an environment that is more positive.”

Coworkers in Sheil Home have also been examining rules and critically thinking about why they exist—not just expecting blind compliance for no reason.

“[It’s] all about teaching skills and growth, not compliance, which I think is kind of our motto now,” she said. “And a lot of that comes from Tricia and her perspective on things … sometimes you gotta run through the wall, rather than go through the door.”

A bittersweet part of Sasha’s job is having to say goodbye to young men as they leave Mercy Home.

“Once you get to know a kid, you can predict exactly what they’re going to do, almost exactly, how they’re going to respond to a situation because you’ve spent so much time with them,” she said. “And so to go from that to not having any contact with them can be really difficult, but the cool thing about Mercy is there’s always new kids moving in.

“It always is hard … but at the same time, you can transition them knowing that you played your role and they’re going to continue to be this awesome person that they are and figure out their way in life.”