Structure. Trust. Tools. Change.
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Ready to Equip Change That Lasts?
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If your team is doing everything it can—and still watching youth spiral, shut down, or disengage—you’re not alone.
Despite increased staffing, tighter protocols, and added services, too many young people still lack the internal tools to truly change. The problem isn’t effort. It’s access—to frameworks that speak their language, and mentors trained to reach them from the inside out.
The Pathlight Mentor Program™ offers exactly that: a story-based, trauma-informed mentorship system that helps justice-impacted youth regulate emotion, reclaim identity, and rebuild from within.
With a 10-book curriculum, mentor certification, and outcomes aligned with NYSED and DOCCS standards, this system doesn’t just fill time—it restores trust and transforms behavior.
It’s Time To Love Yourself Again
With one-on-one guidance and group support, you've found a safe place to dig deep and nurture your inner self.
INTRODUCING...
The Pathlight Mentor Program™
CONNECT YOUTH TO WHAT MATTERS MOST
Help them disconnect from destructive patterns and re-engage with purpose, identity, and emotional clarity. With the Pathlight Mentor Program™, your team will help youth:
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Clarify their identity through story-based reflection
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Regulate emotion with trauma-informed frameworks
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Rebuild trust and vision for long-term growth
This isn’t surface-level programming—it’s structured transformation from the inside out.
It’s time to equip your mentors and empower your youth like never before.
Who am I, Really?
Main Focus: Identity & Self-Definition
NYSED Alignment: CDOS 1; Health Standards 1 & 2
DOCCS Alignment: Life Skills – Personal Development; ART – Social Skills Module
This opening volume helps youth confront one of the most important questions of their lives: Who told me who I am, and who do I want to be?
Many justice-impacted youth grow up being labeled—by schools, the streets, or the system. These labels become identity masks, separating them from who they truly are. Who Am I, Really? guides youth to peel back those labels through structured journaling, powerful metaphors, and story-led group discussion. It offers tools like the “Identity Mirror” and “Label Filter” to help participants take control of their self-perception—on their own terms.
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Mastering the Fire
Main Focus: Emotional Regulation & Anger Management
NYSED Alignment: Health Standards 1 & 3
DOCCS Alignment: ART – Anger Control Module; ASAT/RSAT Emotional Awareness
Anger isn’t the issue—what we do with it is. In Mastering the Fire, participants explore their emotional triggers and their typical reaction patterns—explosions, shutdowns, deflections, or disassociation. Through tools like the “Trigger Tracker” and “Reaction Split,” they begin to slow down these cycles and regain control of the emotional fire inside them.
This book doesn’t shame anger—it validates it. But it also asks hard questions: What’s underneath that rage? What’s really at risk when you lose control? Youth are given space to trace the source of their emotional energy and reframe it as potential power, not danger.
Blood In, Blood Out
Main Focus: Loyalty, Boundaries & Belonging
NYSED Alignment: Health Standard 2; CDOS 3a
DOCCS Alignment: Thinking for a Change – Social Perspective; RSAT – Peer & Family Support
Not all loyalty is love—and not all belonging is healthy. Blood In, Blood Out challenges the unspoken codes youth often live by: stay loyal no matter what, trust no one, and never show weakness.
In this book, participants reflect on who earned their loyalty—and who just claimed it. Through tools like the “Loyalty Ledger” and “Code Check,” youth break down how their circles formed, which relationships uplift them, and which ones keep them stuck.
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Your Story Ain’t Over Yet
Main Focus: Grief, Guilt & Narrative Rebuilding
NYSED Alignment: Health Standards 1 & 2 – Mental Health, Self-Management
DOCCS Alignment: RSAT – Trauma Recovery; CBT – Personal Narratives & Reframing
This book invites participants to confront the stories they’ve been told—or told themselves—about who they are. Whether shaped by loss, abandonment, guilt, or failure, many youth walk through life carrying silent grief and unspoken blame.
Your Story Ain’t Over Yet helps participants recognize that the story isn’t finished—and they get to hold the pen. Through frameworks like the “Growth Flip” and the “Paper vs. Proof Grid,” participants learn how to reframe their pain without erasing it, viewing setbacks as chapters rather than life sentences.
Pain Is the Proof You Survived
Main Focus: Trauma Processing & Emotional Reflection
NYSED Alignment: Health Standards 1 & 3 – Emotional Literacy & Self-Management
DOCCS Alignment: RSAT/ASAT – Trauma Awareness; CBT – Coping & Resilience Tools
Incarcerated or justice-impacted youth often carry trauma they’ve never named, much less processed. Pain Is the Proof You Survived meets them in that space—not to analyze them, but to help them speak their pain with dignity.
Through tools like the “Survival-to-Healing Journal” and “Wound Words,” participants name emotional injuries and develop language to distinguish between coping, avoidance, and healing. They explore how unprocessed pain shows up in behavior, relationships, and identity—and how to convert that pain into purpose.
Who’s Talking in Your Head?
Main Focus: Self-Talk & Cognitive Restructuring
NYSED Alignment: CDOS 1 – Self-Knowledge; Health Standards 1 & 3 – Inner Dialogue, Self-Esteem
DOCCS Alignment: Thinking for a Change – Cognitive Self-Change; CBT – Thought Distortion Rewiring
This volume helps participants identify their internal narrator—and decide whether that voice deserves the microphone. Who’s Talking in Your Head? challenges the automatic thoughts that shape behavior, decisions, and self-worth.
Youth learn to track their internal script, name where it came from, and rewrite the pieces that no longer serve them. Tools like the “Voice ID” and “Script Rewrite” support this process, helping youth develop a conscious relationship with their thoughts.
You Already Know the Answer
Main Focus: Radical Honesty & Personal Accountability
NYSED Alignment: CDOS 2 – Integrated Learning; Health Standards 2 & 3 – Decision-Making & Character
DOCCS Alignment: ASAT – Relapse Prevention; RSAT – Integrity & Self-Reflection Work
Most youth know what’s right. The struggle isn’t awareness—it’s honesty. You Already Know the Answer invites participants to confront the truths they’ve avoided: the excuses, half-steps, and self-deception that keep them stuck.
This book doesn’t shame—it illuminates. Through tools like the “Excuse Filter” and “Truth Audit,” youth examine the cost of avoidance and what accountability really looks like. It challenges them to move beyond survival logic—justifying, deflecting, blaming—and instead stand in clarity, even when it’s uncomfortable.
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Who You’re Becoming
Main Focus: Leadership, Integrity & Long-Term Vision
NYSED Alignment: CDOS 3a – Universal Foundation Skills; Health Standard 2 – Personal Responsibility
DOCCS Alignment: Thinking for a Change – Future Planning; Life Skills – Vision & Character
This volume centers the future—not as fantasy, but as something built from today’s values. Who You’re Becoming teaches youth to define leadership by who they are when no one’s watching, not by titles or image.
Using tools like the “Character Grid” and “Integrity Anchors,” participants explore personal values, long-term goals, and the ripple effects of their choices. They examine how to align their actions with the kind of legacy they want to leave.
The Hustler’s Flip
Main Focus: Skill Conversion & Legal Hustle Strategy
NYSED Alignment: CDOS 2 – Integrated Learning; CDOS 3b – Career Majors: Entrepreneurship
DOCCS Alignment: Reentry – Legal Business Building; Vocational – Skill Transfer Planning
This is where street intelligence meets structured entrepreneurship. The Hustler’s Flip helps youth recognize the transferable skills they already have—then repurpose them for legal success.
Participants work through exercises like the “Skill Flip Map” and “Brand-Purpose Chart” to convert hustle mindsets into strategic business, leadership, or workforce assets. They learn to reframe resourcefulness, loyalty, timing, and hustle—not as risk factors, but as raw materials for sustainable purpose.
Free Inside
Main Focus: Nervous System Mastery & Emotional Peace
NYSED Alignment: Health Standard 1 – Self-Regulation; Health Standard 3 – Stress Management & Resilience
DOCCS Alignment: CBT – Mindfulness & Body-Based Coping; RSAT – Emotional Regulation Tools
Freedom isn’t just a date on the calendar—it’s a state of mind. Free Inside equips youth with daily practices to calm their nervous system, manage stress, and return to peace—even in high-stress environments.
Participants explore grounding techniques like the “5-Second Reset,” “Breathwork Drills,” and the “Grounding Map” to recognize when their bodies are dysregulated and how to bring themselves back to center.
The Peer Mentor Model & Guide System
The Pathlight Mentor Program™ is built on the belief that transformation happens through trusted relationships - not authority. That’s why our model centers certified peer mentors who lead with vulnerability, not perfection.
Rather than “teaching” from above, Pathlight mentors go first; sharing their own growth stories, naming their past mistakes, and modeling real-time emotional work. This builds credibility with youth who’ve been failed by traditional systems and authority figures.
Each mentor is trained and certified in trauma-informed group facilitation, emotional literacy, and ethical storytelling. They learn to guide not lecture; while creating a safe space for youth to explore identity, emotion, and future goals.
To support every session, mentors use comprehensive Mentor Guides designed for clarity and emotional safety.
These include:
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Session-by-session pacing and prompts
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Group exercises aligned with the curriculum books
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Coaching tools for handling emotional disclosures
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Built-in trauma-awareness and grounding strategies
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Reflection activities that tie to NYSED & DOCCS outcomes
This structure ensures fidelity across facilitators while allowing room for authentic connection and flexibility based on each group’s needs.
Mentors can be:
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Formerly system-impacted adults
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Certified peer specialists
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Youth development staff
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Volunteers with lived experience
When mentors are trained to lead from within, they don’t just guide sessions; they become mirrors of what’s possible.
BFI Original Incarcerated Series
From survival to self-leadership - inside or out.
The original Built from the Inside™ series was created for incarcerated adults ready to reflect, heal, and lead with clarity. These 10 powerful workbooks walk individuals through identity, trauma, loyalty, and legal life design; offering story-based reflection, mirror tools, and emotional frameworks grounded in real system experience.
Used in prisons, jails, and reentry programs nationwide, this series supports both personal growth and structured group facilitation - certified through the Pathlight mentorship model.
Growth is possible. Even now. Especially now.
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Pathlight Youth Series
Built for the next generation. Grounded in real growth.
The Pathlight Mentor Program™ is a trauma-informed mentorship track designed for justice-impacted and high-risk youth. Centered on the 10-book Built from the Inside™ Youth Series, this program uses story-based sessions, certified peer mentors, and emotional literacy tools to help young people reclaim identity, manage emotions, and step into future leadership.
Whether in schools, reentry, diversion, or community programs, this track helps youth build resilience, accountability, and purpose - without needing a therapist or a lecture.
Start where they are.
Walk with them toward who they can become.