OK, that's what's up man. When did you find out you had that talent?

I been drawing forever. No kiddding.

They brought me right to the heart of the issue because you're talking to people

who have dealt with the issue themselves.

The homeless. You know they won't give me no house.

These are people who have been in the middle of it

who have fought through it and they're telling you their personal stories.

I'm a diehard Laker fan. That's what I'm talking about man.

My testimony isn't for everyone. My testimony is basically for the hardcore,

the violent, the seriously lost.

Dennis grew up very very angry, was full of hate,

and he didn't have anybody to embrace him, to kind of guide him through life

so he fell into the wrong crowd that ended up embracing him.

But they fell into the wrong path and that made it very easy for him to transition into violence and to crime.

My name is Dennis. If you spell it backwards, it spells sin, and that was me-

conceived, raised, and born in it.

What I couldn't get from my family, I turned to street gangs

trying to get it from them, and once you mess with things, it just goes bad.

Getting shot up, stabbed up, going to war, all over nothing.

In July, my baby brother got murdered.

I've dealt with a lot of guilt on that because I know he saw everything I was doing

the way I was living, and he tried to follow that.

He used to come in the house with guns over here, drugs over here.

So, in a way, my self-destructiveness from the inside lead to his demise.

Gang life, it's a form of addiction, and because you get used to this life, this is all you know.

These are the people who embraced you when nobody else was there to embrace you.

And now you have to make that very tough decision to put that behind you and move on to something else where

it's a lonely road to walk down.

When I walked into this mission, I think what they saw was a man that was either going to die or go back to the pen.

The thing that's keeping him going is love for his daughter

and that's what's keeping him anchored down.

I got one daughter, my only kid.

I love her to death man, we like tight. I'm not gonna let her see what I saw

as a kid growing up. Being here

I've been learning and I've been walking forward, and I thank god that I'm at the Mission man.

I'm just getting it right.

The thing that I enjoyed the most was hearing their optimism and their ambition to still accomplish their dreams.

There are things that they're still holding onto, that they want to accomplish,

and they're determined to accomplish them.

I see my brother Iven. I wave at my brother Iven. He's also a graduate of LA Mission.

I'm doing me now. You know, I'm doing me. I'm proud of myself. I'm happy.

I may not have an office seat job. I'm not dealing with corporate America.

I may not be bringing in a hundred grand a year like some people, but

that's alright with me because I'm doing what I'm doing-

I'm believing in myself, believing in God.

I'm not as good as I should be, but I'm not who I used to be

and that's an achievement in itself.

It's about the journey. It's not about the end result. It's about the journey, and enjoying that challenge.

We all go through dark times. We all have paths that we'd rather not travel

but it's those journeys that make the end result more special.