It wasn’t a light-bulb moment that prompted Denise Hughes-Conlon to institute a few changes at the Pinellas Ex-offender Re-entry Coalition. It more like a nudge. Specifically, a nudge from Robin Saenger, then vice-mayor of Tarpon Springs, FL, who asked, “What small piece can you bring to Peace for Tarpon?

Hughes-Conlon’s piece? Have her clients – “not always the nicest, kindest people” she says — fill out the short 10-question version of the 200-question ACE survey.

How can answering a few questions on a survey possibly help ex-offenders or the people who help them?

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