‘You Must Believe: A Lifeline to Success’ Wins Midsouth Emmy Award
Lifeline to Success participants celebrate the Emmy win.
Forever Ready Productions received a Midsouth Regional Emmy in the Magazine Segment category for a short documentary called “You Must Believe: A Lifeline To Success” at the 34th Annual Midsouth Regional Emmys Saturday night.
Lauren Ready, Brody Kuhar and Juliana White received the Emmy that spotlights the work on DeAndre Brown, founder of Lifeline to Success and LaSalle Pratt, a team lead at Lifeline to Success.
“Thank you to DeAndre Brown and the folks at Lifeline to Success,” Lauren Ready, owner and principal storyteller, said in her acceptance speech. “They are ex-cons who have discovered hope and learned to, not only, turn their lives around but their neighborhood and their community.”
Lifeline to Success founder DeAndre Brown wrote a creed from his prison cell that changed the course of his life. Upon his release, he began to share that creed with other ex-convicts. Today, it's changing lives and transforming communities.
“You never think that you can take your pain and turn it into a platform. And not only will it help individuals, but the world will see it and recognize it,” Brown said. “This will never go away. This is us. The world knows and I believe this is only the beginning.”
Since the documentary was released in 2018, Brown has helped advocate for legislation that helps transition former criminals back into society, including a law signed by Governor Bill Lee in 2019 that removed expungement fees for people who qualify to get their record cleared.
On February 17th, Forever Ready Productions visited Lifeline to Success to share their joy in the win. It was humbling to see the excitement and be reminded that when you partner with someone you can create great work. Forever Ready Productions is grateful that DeAndre and Lifeline to Success trusted us with their story.
“You Must Believe” has been featured in three film festivals across the country and won Audience Choice-Hometowner Documentary Short at Indie Memphis in 2018. Ready was also nominated for Director/Short Form in this year’s Midsouth Regional Emmys.
Forever Ready Productions was also nominated for Emmys for their work with the Memphis Zoo and Memphis Botanic Gardens.
About Lifeline to Success: Lifeline to Success was born when DeAndre Brown and his wife Vinessa realized that they could use his experience—learning to deal with the problems, confusion and frustration of returning to a community after prison—to help others. It began as a sideline endeavor with six ex-offenders meeting twice a week for a class on re-entry. Today, Lifeline enrolls, trains and employs 41 ex-offenders. In addition to working to transform themselves, they are working to solve some of the biggest problems facing Memphis—crime, blight, violence, joblessness and other aspects of what DeAndre calls "criminal culture." You can watch ‘You Must Believe” by clicking here.