A CEO’S GOODBYE

BY JOANNE PAGE President & CEO, The Fortune Society

After 34 years as President and CEO of The Fortune Society, I plan to retire at the close of this year. It has been the honor and pleasure of my life to be head of The Fortune Society for this three-and-a-half decade term.

When I came to Fortune in 1989, I deeply loved the organization. I was a summer intern during my law school journey. I was moved by the commitment and love of the people who worked at Fortune and by the courage of the people who came to change their lives. When I returned to head the agency, I felt I was taking on a sacred trust. Fortune is unique in my experience. We try to live by that commitment. As we work with the people who come to us hoping to build a better life, we treat them like our loved ones seeking help. Fortune’s first housing program was the beds of its volunteers, and we continue to strive to keep that way of ensuring that people get what they need without the delays and hoopjumping of bureaucracy.

Fortune is also magical for its diversity, not just age, race, and the usual diversity measures, but true diversity in life experience. From its founding, when David Rothenberg, Kenny Jackson, Mel Rivers and others started Fortune, it was a collaboration of people from outside the system committed to social justice and to fighting inhumane methods, alongside people formerly incarcerated who had that same commitment.

Fortune has a dual mission: service and advocacy. We provide the services and tools to have people build a better life after the trauma of incarceration, and we seek to address the systemic issues that brutalize justiceimpacted people and trap them into a cycle of damage to themselves, their families, and their communities.

David Rothenberg came to me several years into my tenure, and we developed the sweetest example of Founder’s Syndrome I have ever seen. We had long conversations about clarifying our roles. As the founder, he was like a grandparent and could play with the child, feed the child, and then go home. I was responsible for the care, diapering, and decisions that a CEO needs to make, as well as the overwhelming burden of fundraising and working with the government. We share stories and challenges in a way only somebody with our shared experience can know.

I tried to retire twice before. The first time, I was not ready to leave Fortune and the work and community that I love, and I still had much that I wished to accomplish as CEO. The second time, I stayed because I needed to bring Fortune safely through the worst of the pandemic and the healing afterward.

Now I will be retiring just before my 70th birthday. I want my retirement to be like David’s: connected to the organization and community I love and the work that changes people’s lives and our barbaric criminal legal system.

What I have learned at Fortune is how beautiful people are when they first find hope. I have seen how people who have come through hellholes like Rikers Island can grow and thrive and find their wings in a caring and supportive environment. Working with the leaders, staff, and participants at Fortune has been the privilege of my life. I am endlessly inspired by the courage it takes to change one’s life so that the future is not a mere repetition of the past.

I started this work at eighteen as a volunteer at Green Haven Correctional Facility. I was running groups that taught decision-making skills. On one memorable occasion, as we waited for more group members to join us, a group member said something I’ve carried through my decades at Fortune. He said, “Growing up, I was told you would either end up dead or in prison. I ended up in prison, and most of my friends ended up locked up or dead.” I was stunned by that prediction of the future. When the other people came in, they said they had the same map for their future and did not question its inevitability. What we do at Fortune, through our services, advocacy, love, and role modeling of people who have changed their lives after incarceration, is let people have the tools and hope to build other roads and futures.

I will not leave this work when I retire at the end of this calendar year. I want to emulate David Rothenberg in my relationship with Fortune after my retirement and continue my special love: creating housing for justice-impacted homeless people and fighting the systemic barriers people face after incarceration. The work that I have done at Fortune is work that I will do for the rest of my life. So, as I leave the responsibilities of Fortune’s CEO, I will not be a stranger to the Fortune community and the larger service and advocacy community that I have been privileged to be a part of.

I want to thank the readers of the Fortune News for your support of the organization through the decades and for letting me be a part of your world. 