Jonathan’s Story

Jonathan Bowman joined the Delta Project team in 2021 after several years of mentorship with Cole Williams.

This is his story.

I met Cole because my judge asked if I had a mentor. I told him the only positive person I knew at the time was a guy by the name of Cole Williams who I had met at a parenting class that my son’s mother was attending. I also started attending to support my sons who were on probation at the time. After a lot of support and encouragement from our relationship Cole invited me to share my story in 2020 at Calvin University and later Grand Valley University, Friend of the Court, and the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center.

It was through those opportunities that I started to see what I could become. I knew I had a story and I wanted to find a way to give back. So Cole invited me to continue to attend his class sessions at the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center as a guest speaker. It was through the eyes of the young men in detention that I found my voice -- because I was looking at my younger self.

I realized that my purpose was to give back. They labeled me a felon, they told me that I wouldn’t be anything because of my past. In that classroom I saw myself and the young men in the center welcomed me. They listened without judgment; they saw me. Standing next to the white board with all these brown faces staring back at me felt like an out of body experience. I was standing and instructing a classroom. It was in that space that I discovered that I mattered, I had a voice, a story, and a place in the world. I was 12 years old when I entered the Criminal Justice System. I was in my mid 40s before I was finally free from the war of back-to-back incarceration and probation.

It took 40 years for a judge to ask me if I had any male positive role models. It wasn’t that those positive men weren’t out there throughout my life. It just took the right person at the right time. Working alongside Cole and seeing the work he’s done in the community to support youth and their families is inspiring and contagious. I learned through our relationship that change can happen when you have support. As a facilitator for the Boys to Men-tor program. I’m able to use my lived experience to make real change in my community.

I am hoping to use my lived experience as a tool for prevention. My goal is to help interrupt the transmission of youth entering the pipeline to prison. If a young man unfortunately finds himself being sentenced to prison, then I hope to provide him with the tools to survive prison by encouraging him to participate in programs that will help rehabilitate him so that he returns back to the community as a healthier, contributing citizen.