2026 Embraced & Empowered Conference
Conference Agenda
Two days of practical reentry training, lived experience, community connection, and live music—designed to help each of us become a steadier partner for someone coming home.
What to expect
Every session is live and interactive. You’ll hear directly from returning citizens, faith leaders, volunteers, and reentry partners—and leave with practical ways to support successful reentry without overstepping your role.
- Dedicated audience participation and Q&A
- Lunch, coffee, and snacks included in person
- Every main session available live on Zoom
Music throughout the weekend
Love Only Grows will open and close each day and bring live music into our breaks and lunch transitions.
People before programs
Preparation before release, trust, dignity, responsible support, the first days home, and practical ways to step into the work.
Registration, coffee, and online welcome
Check in, connect with other participants, and get settled in Boulder or online.
Interfaith invocation, music, and welcome
We open the weekend by grounding the training in the people preparing to come home and the communities preparing to welcome them.
What people can do before release to prepare for a successful return
Inner change, accountability, healing, education, new habits, and purpose—and what helps that work continue after release.
How to build trust and prepare together before release
How correspondence and other pre-release relationships can encourage goals, honor privacy, strengthen accountability, and keep healthy boundaries.
Break
Coffee, connection, and live music from Love Only Grows.
How to help without taking over
Returning-community voices explore choice, consent, privacy, family relationships, and the difference between support and control.
Lunch and purposeful networking
Lunch together, informal connection, and an optional table exchange. Online participants may join the hosted conversation or take the full break.
Release day and the first 72 hours: what needs to happen
Gate pickup, practical support, housing and health continuity, peer connection, and coordinated handoffs during the first three days home.
Connecting through correspondence
Practical guidance—and a live demonstration—for writing letters that support people as they prepare for release.
Break
Refresh, reconnect, and return with live music from Love Only Grows.
They’re coming out… are we ready?
Review upcoming releases and identify realistic roles for individuals, faith communities, and service partners in each person’s success.
Music, reflection, and Friday close
Programs into partnership
Community readiness, sustained support, resource connections, reentry planning, and a coordinated pathway forward.
Coffee, registration, and online welcome
Reconnect in Boulder or join the live online room.
Music, welcome, and reflection
Gather one insight from Friday and begin a day focused on practical models, coordination, and next steps.
What a faith community needs in place before welcoming someone home
How a community can prepare a team, protect privacy, respect choice, share responsibility, and sustain support—with time for audience participation and questions.
What support looks like after the first month
Sustaining recovery and health, rebuilding trust, handling setbacks, finding purpose, giving back, and being recognized as more than a record.
Break
Coffee, connection, and live music from Love Only Grows.
Four programs, four strengths: who to call for what
A practical map of what each organization does best, who it serves, and where collaboration can strengthen the path home.
Lunch and open networking
Connect with fellow attendees, presenters, and community partners and continue the morning’s conversations.
Navigating reentry: reviewing a sample reentry plan
Explore what reentry navigators do, where plans can fall short, and how to turn broad goals into realistic next steps.
How ReentryPartnership.org connects people, programs, and follow-up
See how returning citizens, prepared volunteers, faith communities, service providers, and regional partners can connect with responsible coordination.
Break
Coffee, a short reset, and live music before the closing conversation.
Speaker Q&A
An open conversation with the weekend’s presenters, including questions from participants in Boulder and online.
Invitation, benediction, music, and closing
Come ready to learn. Leave ready to act.
Join us in Boulder or live online. Registration is pay what you can, and no one is turned away.
