A Dialogue on how one reentry program is growing change from the ground up

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  • Photo: Mid-American Gardener/IPM

Editor’s note: This segment of “Dialogue” features content from an episode of “Mid-American Gardener,” which originally aired on June 19, 2025.

FirstFollowers, a local reentry program, uses gardening to help formerly incarcerated individuals cultivate new beginnings.

This conversation explores how growing plants becomes a path to healing, rebuilding and community connection beyond prison walls.

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GUESTS:

Marlon Mitchell 

  • Executive Director of FirstFollowers

Pierre Willhite 

  • FirstFollowers 
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Penny Bradford

Patricia "Penny" Bradford is a senior majoring in journalism and minoring in public relations at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. She is a producer for Dialogue and a native of the Champaign-Urbana area.