About Us
Warrior Stories
Real stories of transformation, recovery, restoration and hope.
Where It Started
From Pain to Purpose
Before Warriors Center changed anyone else’s life, it changed its founder’s. Arrested every year from 14 to 28 and facing 15 years in prison, David Vincent made a promise on a jail cell floor that became this ministry.
Real Stories
Lives Changed. Stories Worth Telling.
Every person who walks through the doors of the Warriors Center has a story. Some arrive battling addiction, homelessness, incarceration, or years of hopelessness. These stories reflect what restoration can look like through recovery, accountability, faith, and community.
Behind every graduation, every restored family, and every transformed life is a journey marked by struggle, perseverance, and hope. Warrior Stories exists to share those journeys and document the ongoing impact taking place across our centers.
These are not just stories about recovery. They are stories about lives being rebuilt.
Featured Story
Adrianna Pease
Featured in October 2026
Adrianna Pease arrived at Warriors Center with everything she owned in a backpack: four changes of clothes and a few hygiene products. For years she had looked for love in places that nearly destroyed her, and she had little reason to believe anyone would help her without wanting something in return.
Today she is a graduate with a job, a home of her own, and her family back in her life. Her story is about learning what it means to be loved without having to earn it first, and about the people who refused to give up on her along the way.
Featured Story
Antwone Harris
Featured in September 2026
Antwone Harris came to Warriors Center Memphis believing his life might never change. Years of addiction had cost him the trust of the people around him, and when he arrived at the center, he wasn’t convinced that anything would be different this time.
Six years later, Antwone is the Executive Director of that same center. His journey from resident to leader is a story about recovery, responsibility, and what can happen when someone who has lost the trust of everyone around him is given the chance to earn it back.
Featured Story
Angelina McClain
Featured in August 2026
Angelina McClain had already been through fifteen treatment programs when she came to the Warriors Center in 2018. Her father had died three months earlier, she was facing homelessness, and the only two futures she could imagine for herself were prison or death. Twice she agreed to come to Olive Branch. Twice she ran.
Today she is the Bootcamp Director at that same center, which means she is the first person every woman sees when she walks through the door. She has been sober eight years. She knows exactly what those women are carrying, because she once carried all of it herself.
Featured Story
Jamie Medlin
Featured in July 2026
Jamie Medlin once believed he had lost his freedom, his family, and any chance of getting either back. After thirteen years in prison, and a life built around gangs and addiction before that, he had no reason to expect the people he loved would still be waiting for him.
Today, those relationships have been restored. Jamie is sober, married, and back in Memphis working for Lion Company, mentoring the next generation of men walking through the same doors he once did, living proof that God can restore what addiction tries to destroy.
Featured Story
Lucia Strauss
Featured in June 2026
Lucia Strauss once believed addiction had cost her everything, including her relationship with her children. After years of substance abuse, abuse, loss, homelessness, and hopelessness, she came to believe that the people she loved most would be better off without her.
Today, those relationships have been restored. Lucia now helps other women rebuild their lives through faith, accountability, and recovery, while living proof that God can restore what addiction tries to destroy.
Featured Story
Michael Bailey
Featured in May 2026
Michael’s story is one of addiction, incarceration, recovery, restoration, and rebuilding a life he once believed was lost. Today, his journey reflects the kind of lasting transformation that can happen through faith, accountability, and community.
From prison and hopelessness to baptism, marriage, leadership, and renewed purpose, Michael’s story is a reminder that transformation is possible even in the darkest circumstances.
Featured Story
Matthew Ince
Featured in April 2026
Matthew’s journey is a story of recovery, rebuilding, accountability, and rediscovered purpose. After years shaped by addiction and instability, he began the difficult process of rebuilding his life one step at a time through structure, faith, and perseverance.
Today, Matthew’s story reflects the quiet but powerful transformation that can happen when someone is given the opportunity, support, and determination to pursue lasting change.
Watch Their Stories
In Their Own Words
Men and women from across the Warriors Center network share where they came from, what changed, and where they are today.
Kevin Bowens
From Hell Street to the Ministry
Assistant Director, Warriors Center Memphis
From Miami to Memphis, addiction and prison had Kevin convinced the streets would be his grave. Today he helps lead the program that gave him a new identity.
Anthony Blackman
A Childhood Nightmare
Community Director, Warriors Center Memphis
Addicted by 13 and in and out of detention and prison, Anthony found his turning point in a motel room with a Gideon Bible. Now he helps other men find the same way out.
Stephanie Parr
From Foster Care to Freedom
Serving at Warriors Center for Women, Olive Branch
Years of instability, foster care, anger, and addiction left Stephanie sure her story was over. She was welcomed without judgment and now serves other women walking the same road.
Krista Casey
Overcoming PTSD
U.S. Army veteran
A Purple Heart recipient, Krista came home from Iraq carrying trauma that led to addiction. At the Warriors Center for Women she began the slow work of healing and found purpose again.
Maria Mack
From Brokenness to Beauty
Graduate and artist
Grief sent a gifted young artist into addiction, homelessness, and jail. Maria helped rebuild one of our women’s campuses with her own hands, and rebuilt her life along the way.
Hershey Burnett
Hershey Burnett’s War Story
Now Regional Director, Warriors Center USA
Recorded in 2014. More than a decade later, Hershey helps lead the Warriors Center network, living proof of how far a changed life can go.
Monthly Updates
Recent Impact Updates
Each month, Warrior Stories highlights the people, milestones, and moments that reflect the ongoing work taking place across the Warriors Center. These updates include transformation stories, graduate highlights, ministry news, and measurable signs of progress happening throughout our centers.
Together, these monthly updates serve as an ongoing record of recovery, restoration, accountability, and hope.
Stay Connected
Transformation is happening every day across our Warriors Center locations. Follow our centers online to see new stories, graduations, and life change as it happens.