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A CHOICE AND A CHANCE FOR EVERY WOMAN
Our Mission: The mission is to assist, guide, and coach women to become responsible, productive, and fully self-supporting members of society with a purpose.
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​Our Vision: Our vision is to reduce recidivism, homelessness, and addiction. We seek to abate the vicious cycle of addiction, incarceration, deviant lifestyles, and bad choices that have negative consequences.
Birth of a Program: Her Story
Founder and Director of A Choice and A Chance Program, Vanessa Winckler (pictured right), created a haven and therapeutic milieu for women battling addiction, mental health issues, and barriers posed from being re-entry citizens. This vision was created out of Ms. Winckler's experience with addiction, mental health,and incarceration. Her story isn’t a story of a victim, but that of a survivor, a warrior, and a woman with a philanthropic heart.
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Ms. Winckler has dedicated her life to helping women, who are going through what she was able to overcome. Not a victim of circumstance, but a warrior and survivor of darkness, Ms. Winckler teaches women how to self-love and overcome all barriers they encounter. Empowerment, support, and love are key components of Ms. Winckler’s philosophy.
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On June 6, 2000, Ms. Winckler stopped using mood-mind-altering substances. She was incarcerated when she stop using. After being incarcerated over 13 times, she did something different. As a survivor of sexual assault, mental health,abuse, toxic relationships, Ms. Winckler did what most do, turned to a life of drugs. Her last incarceration gave her the strength to want more and to do something different. “ I went to treatment, followed direction, and I met this wonderful woman at a 12 step program who did for me what no one had done for her in a long time. She cared.” Ms. Winckler told her story over and over for the simple goal of giving back, loving, supporting and guiding women in similar circumstances.
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Her mission and vision are aligned to foster peer support on the road to recovery. Ms. Winckler’s approach is to show being victimized does not equate being a victim. That mentality is counterproductive, and Ms. Winckler’s program helps to change that toxic mindset.
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When she left jail the last time, she had nothing, no clothes, no personal hygiene products, or even a cigarette to help her anxiety of re-entry. However, through the love and support of a stranger, she was given those essential items, and shown a better way of thinking, and a growth mindset. When asked what further propelled her to continue on this path of positivity and wanting to give back, she stated: “I am a survivor, I do for women what that woman and God did for me. I care, and I want to help women in the recovering process.”
As a survivor of addiction, Ms. Winckler’s vision has been to create a safe haven and atmosphere for women who have struggled with addiction, mental health issues, and institutionalization.