This newsletter was sent to our Saint Leonard’s community email subscribers on August 28, 2025. If you would like to receive future news from Saint Leonard’s, join us and subscribe to receive email updates.

Allen Griffin Jr. came to Saint Leonard’s Ministries for the first time last fall to attend his son’s graduation from the high school certification program.

The 42-year-old father did not know that a life-changing moment was waiting for him in the Michael Barlow Center.

Then the valedictorian and other speakers went to the podium.

“Everybody was getting up there and telling their story and what they have been through. And I related to the same situations. I had the same issues everybody else had,” Griffin Jr. says. “And I’m sitting there thinking, ‘If my son can do this, I can do it.’”

After the ceremony, Griffin Jr. approached Gloria Riley, the program coordinator, to talk about enrolling. He joined the next high school class – and became the valedictorian.

“It made me feel so accomplished to graduate, like a lot of pride. And to be valedictorian on top of all that,” Griffin Jr. says. “I really showed up and showed out.”

The fact that it stemmed from his son’s graduation means “you can learn something from anybody,” Griffin Jr. says. “Getting that diploma boosted my morale. It was a big confidence boost.”

Griffin Jr. credits the Saint Leonard’s staff with providing the motivation. After high school, he graduated from Road to Success, our workforce-readiness program that assists with resume-building, job-interview techniques and the transition to employment.

“They’re really trying to figure out how this person can get working,” he says. “How to leave the streets in the streets – and go to work.”

Allen Griffin IV with Adult High School Coordinator, Gloria Riley in December 2024. Allen Griffin Jr. with Gloria just six months later in June 2025.

Griffin Jr. has not been incarcerated for 16 years. He qualified for our programs simply by having prior justice involvement. His son – Allen Griffin IV – attended the high school program as a community participant.

In 2020, the Griffins experienced a tragedy when the mother of Griffin IV’s child was killed in a shooting in a dormitory at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Griffin IV returned to Chicago in 2021 to raise his child as a single parent.

“It was like an emotional ball – trying to get out of depression and take care of another human being on your own,” Griffin IV says. “It took me a few years to realize we got to do better. I was looking to do anything to elevate and educate myself.”

Griffin IV’s grandmother suggested Saint Leonard’s. He visited campus, enrolling in the high school program and the Construction Skills Training Program. “The construction class put me in a mindset of ‘I can do anything,’” Griffin IV says. “It put me at a higher state of mind. Through the whole process, I was learning myself again. Not being so angry.”

Now Griffin IV is a handyman for hire, and he’s finding many customers who need at-home tasks like hanging flat-screen TVs on walls. He gets the job done in about 20 minutes.

At his father’s graduation, Griffin IV surprised his father by stepping up to the podium as the alumni speaker for the ceremony. Griffin IV says the accomplishments represent a new chapter in life that places the family “on a road of breaking a generational curse” of incarceration.

“It was a great experience. It was a lot of support. He was there for me. I’m there for him,” Griffin IV says. “The love was in air.”