In Time of Need

This is the source of The Path to a better future.



We are a hardy team of volunteers, making this impossibly grand idea a reality. We are:
We are employing our various talents and life experiences to build an awesome directory and library that anyone can carry in their pocket—a Path to a better life.

While this project has been closely held so far (simply because we haven't had cause to tell many people yet) we will be launching The Path soon. And the launch will only be the beginning.

Here's how this all came about...

Years ago Dick created a website to give his grandchildren and great grandchildren a sense of who he was and what he experienced when he was their age, dickwillis.com.

And then he thought of another use for it.

In Dick's own words...

For decades I've volunteered to improve the prospects of what I experienced as distressed populations: at-risk teens, abused and neglected children, the impoverished, elderly shut-ins and the infirm. In recent years I've been mentoring prison inmates one-on-one in preparation for their release from prisons here in Oregon.

Typically, the work involves helping inmates plan for and secure a place to live, a job, affordable transportation, healthcare, etc.  (COVID-19 added complications to the usual challenges of their being forced to land in strange and unforgiving territory.)

At this writing I'm approaching 80 and clear-eyed about my mortality.  A while back a prisoner who's been aware of the work I've done for his fellow inmates, both before and after their release, said to me, 'I have eight years left to my sentence.  You may not be around when I'm ready to be released.  I'm asking that everything you've done for those other men you make available to me.'

My original website and eventually its successor, the smart GPS-based application we're calling The Path, are our team's response to that inmate's request.  We're clearing a path for him to follow when his release arrives.

The Path is not intended for ex-inmates alone; it's for a whole universe of people needing to survive in this society who might have limited resources. People like:

As Dick said, he's in the autumn of his life and he wants this project to live on after him. So he asked three longtime friends—Rachel, Jamie and Josh—and two of his grand-adults—Justine and Payton—all of them Millennials, to help him build this first-of-its-kind tool.

As The Path advances, it will be able to help more and more people wherever they find themselves on their life's path. Our team is making this happen, and we invite you to join our mailing list to stay informed as we make progress.