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About Candice Baughman
Reentry Leader.
Advocate.
Builder of Belonging.
Candice Baughman brings deep lived experience, reentry leadership, and community-centered advocacy to her work supporting justice-impacted individuals, congregations, and community partners across Washington State.
Reentry
Leadership With Lived Experience
Her Work
Walking With People, Congregations & Communities Toward Reentry Success.
Candice’s work is rooted in accompaniment, education, trauma-informed support, and the belief that successful reentry requires strong relationships, community belonging, and practical pathways forward.
Candice serves as a Program Specialist with Underground Ministries’ One Parish One Prisoner program, supporting congregations across Washington State in building and sustaining reentry accompaniment teams designed to walk alongside individuals returning home from incarceration.
As a formerly incarcerated woman, founder of Ed 4 Empowerment, and reentry practitioner, Candice brings both lived experience and professional expertise to her work with churches, community organizations, and justice-impacted individuals.
Her work centers on reducing isolation, strengthening community reintegration, and helping people move toward housing stability, education access, employment pathways, and restored community connection.
Why Ed 4 Empowerment Exists
Created From Lived Experience, Built for Second Chances.
Candice created Ed 4 Empowerment because she knows what it feels like to rebuild life after incarceration — and she knows that people need more than encouragement. They need guidance, education, relationships, practical resources, and a community willing to walk with them.
♡
Her Heart Behind the Work
Ed 4 Empowerment was born out of Candice’s belief that justice-impacted people should not have to return home alone, unseen, or unsupported. Her heart is to help people move from survival to stability, from shame to dignity, and from isolation to belonging.
Through education, peer mentorship, reentry support, advocacy, and community partnerships, Candice helps create spaces where people can heal, grow, lead, and become part of something larger than their past.
For Candice, this work is not just professional — it is personal. It is about opening doors, building bridges, restoring hope, and reminding people that transformation is possible when a community chooses to show up.
01
Because Reentry Can Be Lonely
Candice understands that people returning home often face isolation, stigma, and uncertainty. Ed 4 Empowerment exists to help people feel seen, supported, and guided.
02
Because Education Opens Doors
Education gives people tools to rebuild confidence, make informed decisions, access opportunity, and imagine a future beyond incarceration.
03
Because Lived Experience Matters
Candice believes those closest to the struggle often carry the wisdom needed to create meaningful, practical, and dignity-centered solutions.
OPOP
One Parish One Prisoner Program Specialist
Ed 4
Founder & Executive Director
Peer
Mentoring & Reentry Curriculum
4.0
MBA GPA at Adams State University
Professional Leadership
Roles That Shape Candice’s Reentry Work
Candice’s leadership sits at the intersection of lived experience, faith-community accompaniment, peer mentoring, education, and statewide reentry advocacy.
01
Program Specialist, One Parish One Prisoner
Candice supports congregations across Washington State in forming reentry accompaniment teams that walk alongside people returning home from incarceration.
02
Founder & Executive Director, Ed 4 Empowerment
Through Ed 4 Empowerment, Candice builds pathways of education, advocacy, reentry support, peer mentorship, and community connection.
03
Reentry Program Specialist, Hope on the Horizon
Candice serves with Interaction Transition’s Hope on the Horizon peer mentoring program, supporting relational models of reentry guidance and support.
What Candice Helps Build
Training, Mentorship, Partnership & Advocacy
Candice helps communities move from good intentions to practical, trauma-informed, dignity-centered support for people returning home.
A
Trauma-Informed Reentry Support
Candice trains faith communities and community partners to understand reentry through a trauma-informed, relational, and dignity-centered lens.
B
Peer Mentoring Curriculum
She develops peer mentoring curriculum that equips mentors and participants with tools for accompaniment, support, growth, and reintegration.
C
Community Partnerships
Candice coordinates partnerships between churches, community organizations, and reentry-focused programs to strengthen long-term support systems.
D
Relational Reentry Models
She helps facilitate accompaniment-based models that reduce isolation and create meaningful relationships for people returning home.
E
Statewide Reentry Advocacy
Candice is actively engaged in statewide reentry advocacy efforts that center the voices of system-impacted people.
F
Policy Grounded in Lived Experience
Her advocacy advances policies grounded in dignity, equity, lived experience, and the leadership of justice-impacted communities.
Education & Formation
Academic Training Meets Lived Experience.
Candice’s leadership is shaped by both formal education and firsthand understanding of the systems, barriers, and possibilities involved in reentry.
Candice holds a B.A. in Criminal Justice and Community Services from Saint Martin’s University.
She is currently completing her M.B.A. at Adams State University, where she holds a 4.0 GPA.
Her education strengthens her work in program development, reentry strategy, curriculum design, organizational leadership, advocacy, and community partnership building.
Her Mission
Building Collective Power, Belonging & Transformation
Candice is passionate about fostering leadership among justice-impacted communities, creating spaces of belonging, and helping individuals and congregations experience transformation through relationship, dignity, and shared responsibility.