THE WAY OUT

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Cofounder and COO, Ruben Gaona was born in El Paso, Texas and moved to Milwaukee’s Southside at the age of 15 with his siblings and his mother. In 2017 Ruben completed 7 years of a 10-year sentence. Ruben has worked as a reentry specialist with the State of Wisconsin for almost 2 years and in 2019 he founded 2ndChanceWisconsin and began providing guidance (through motivational speaking) to formerly incarcerated people and others facing barriers.  Ruben is a U. S. Navy Veteran, former employee for the Department of Defense and is currently a Senior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Helen Bader School of Social Welfare. Ruben has had the privilege of speaking at several re-entry engagements throughout Wisconsin to discuss the merits of The Way Out (and its anticipated anti-recidivism impact).