BALTIMORE — Therapy is more than just a ball for Shawn Woodland. It's a part of a new routine for him and other rebounders.
"I was recently incarcerated, and I came home and I just felt like I was slipping back into the things that I usually do, like selling drugs, using drugs, just being indulgent in violence. I just wanted to do something different," he said.
It's a program that deals with more than just his addiction.
"If we don't deal with the trauma, it's not solved. The trauma sometimes outweighs the substance abuse," said Sakina Dean.
Trauma is often the root of the problem for offenders according to Dean.
She started Rebound as part of her non-profit Divine Light Outpatient Treatment and Recovery Program.
Rebound provides drug treatment, grief counseling, job readiness housing and therapy to young men from 18 to 30.
It's not court ordered. They choose to be here. They're subjected to random drug testing and they hear from voices that echo their own lifestyles.
"People believed in me more than I had faith in myself that put me in this position, for real."
Mike Roary talks to the young men on their level because he's been in their shoes.
"I was locked up for murder. Involved with it as far as like, even though my hand ain't actually pulled the trigger, I mean I was there I participated and I play a role, so it was like, yeah, that's how I got my 35 years," Roary said,
Mike's story is relatable and a reality check for people like Shawn.
But the murder rate and crime stats we show on the news don't phase many of the young men from Rebound. Unfortunately, they’ve lived through it.
Mike says if it weren't for the 18 years he spent prison, he'd be dead.
"When you're in it, you don't realize what you're doing. Waking up, smoking a blunt, carrying a gun...that was normal for me. When I came home, I was like damn this was me. This is how I was living?" Roary detailed.
Two years out of prison Mike's on a mission.
He's working, he has his own place and is showing Shawn and others in the Rebound program there is a life outside of the game.
"Five years from now I see Shawn graduated from college, with a career, not a job," he said. "And that's stable mentality, you know clean and just at a better space in my life."
Mike is living proof it can happen. Things we take granted are now within reach.
"Like when I got home, I opened a bank account, I felt like a human being," he said.
