Amy Barch, a Liberty Fellow and member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, took an unexpected path to leadership that began with a life-changing college internship in a local jail. Getting proximate to incarcerated individuals reshaped her perspective, as she realized they were not so different from herself. This experience – getting to know these individuals personally – ignited a passion reducing recidivism and fueled her co-founding of Turn90, an organization dedicated to empowering formerly incarcerated men to rebuild their lives. 

Now 13 years into her journey with this work, we talked to Amy at the 2024 Resnick Aspen Action Forum about Turn90’s impact so far, lessons learned, and what keeps her going.  

Answers have been edited for clarity and length.

Can you tell us a bit about Turn90, starting from the problem that you’re trying to solve?

Turn90 is working to reduce recidivism –the tendency for a convicted felon to reoffend or engage in criminal behavior. Most people who go to jail and prison end up being rearrested. Nationally, about 62% of people are rearrested within three years of their release. We’re trying to change that starting at the state-level. We are located in South Carolina with locations in Charleston and Columbia, and are currently opening a third location in the upstate.

What’s your approach?

Turn90 has a therapeutic approach. We believe that helping people think and act differently helps transform their life. But then I think that you have to marry that with opportunity. You can help somebody to transform into a different person, but if you don’t present a real opportunity for them to actualize that, then you are not giving them the opportunity to live their best life. 

What inspired you to take on this challenge?

When I was in college, I decided to do an internship in our county jail. It was sort of an unlikely choice for me. I hadn’t experienced crime, prison, or known anyone who had. I had no personal connection to the issue. But I felt very privileged growing up and I felt that it would be awful to choose a life that just benefited me and was only serving myself. After many years of trying to figure that out as a young person, I realized that living a life of service was the answer.

The internship at the county jail changed my life. I was helping men get their GED and had this very upfront, close experience of recognizing that there was very little difference between me and the people that I was working with in that jail, and that they were incredibly wonderful people. I began to recognize that things are not just “good” and “bad” or “right” and “wrong.” It’s so messy and all of us are all the things. There are so many gifts and talents in our prisons, and I just felt like we could do so much better if we really wanted to.

You talk a lot about getting proximate to the problem. Can you talk about the value of that practice in creating effective solutions?

I don’t feel truly connected to life unless I’m deeply involved in addressing an issue. For me, that means working directly with the people affected. I’ve spent 16 years in and out of jails and prisons, and that work makes me feel most alive. Wherever I go, I represent them, which is why I always wear my Turn90 gear. Since I spend so much time with them in these institutions, I carry their presence with me, especially when I’m at tables they can’t be at.

What’s the impact you’ve had so far?

Measuring impact in the social space is challenging because, like all things involving people, it’s complex and messy. It’s hard to quantify change in someone’s life. Initially, I measured success with concrete metrics: Did someone avoid going back to prison? Did they get and keep a job? We still track those numbers, but my understanding of impact has evolved. Every person we work with matters, and reducing their journey to a statistic can overlook the meaningful progress and positive experiences we’ve shared.

Impact isn’t just about numbers; it’s about people. We aim to shift the conversation with donors and supporters to focus on doing the right work for the right reasons, trusting that meaningful results will follow without needing to define success solely by a stat.

How have you gotten donors and partners away from focusing on numbers alone to define impact?

For us, redefining how we measure impact starts with bringing people into the story.You can’t just say, “Let’s measure it differently, but still support us financially,” unless there are real people having real hardship and real experiences in the conversation. That’s why we invite others into our journey—a journey we’ve intentionally made big enough for everyone to step into. That’s one of my roles—to make a story big enough that there’s room for everybody in it. 

We host tours of our centers, hold roundtable conversations, and invite people to participate in our cognitive behavioral classes. We ask people from the community, donors, partners, and interested community members to come in and sit in those groups. They’re incredibly sacred spaces for us, but our guys are really open to having other people in there and they don’t act any differently. They don’t censor themselves. While visitors often enter cautiously, unsure about stepping into such a personal space, they leave inspired by the depth of effort and transformation they witness. Seeing people work so hard to rebuild their lives helps shift the focus from metrics to the meaningful, human impact happening every day.

Can you talk about your experience working across differences?

Working in the prison space, I see a lot of distinctions between those running prisons, those in corrections, and people like me who focus on therapeutic, social justice programs. However, I don’t approach conversations or collaboration by focusing on differences. For me, it’s always about the goal: What are we trying to achieve? How does this align with my mission? Where can we find common ground? It’s not about opposition but about shared purpose. That said, finding a way forward can still be challenging—it’s hard to gain traction or clarity at times. But those challenges feel bigger than any one person.

What’s been your biggest leadership learning of doing this work?

I’ve had so many leadership lessons, but one of the biggest has been understanding how my role in the organization has evolved. When I started Turn90 as a volunteer in 2011, my focus was on creating a better experience for people in and out of prison and driving criminal justice reform. Back then, I saw my role as programmatic—teaching classes and providing direct services. I had no idea I’d need to learn entirely new skills, like managing and growing a team.

Now, we have 20 full-time team members across two sites, soon to be three, and last year, we hired 110 men out of prison to work in our businesses. The person who taught classes in the jail in 2011 is long gone. One of my greatest realizations is that I need to constantly requalify myself for this role—not just for where we are today, but for where we’re going in the future. This growth will always be part of the journey.

As you’re in the scaling phase, what advice would you give to other leaders who are looking to grow their social impact work?

We’ve been working on a scaling project for nearly five years, with the goal of expanding Turn90 to two additional locations across South Carolina. Our strategy was to evaluate a three-site statewide model, assess our impact, and explore how we might replicate it in other cities facing high recidivism.

Scaling has required far more money, time, and effort than I anticipated, which has been amajor lesson. We’re currently a year behind schedule because we needed the time to stay in business. Despite publicly committing to a timeline, we faced numerous implementation challenges and had to delay—something I felt okay with because people were supportive.

And perhaps the most important lesson is that it will never be perfect. There will never be a perfect moment with the ideal amount of money or the perfect team. At some point, you just have to take the leap and embrace the risk.

As an Liberty Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, you make a lifelong commitment to creating positive impact. How do you stay resilient to do this work? And how do you resource yourself to keep going?

There’s been ebbs and flow just like I think there are with all aspects of our lives. We have to continually commit and we have to recommit. I always say that Turn90 is my biggest love affair. There have been two times in the last 12 or 13 years that I’ve really had to recommit and dig deep to keep going. I just can’t give up on the dream. I know that we can be better, we can do better, and I just can’t give up on making that dream come true.

What is that dream for you?

My dream is to approach people in prison differently. We know the outcome we get if we keep doing the same thing. That is insanity. These folks have so much potential to add to our society, to our community, and to our families. They’re wonderful people, just like we all are. We all have different dimensions to ourselves. I think that there’s a huge opportunity to help people in prison realize their best version of themselves, and then support them in the community once they get out–that’s my vision.

About the Liberty Fellowship: The Liberty Fellowship is the only state-based Fellowship program of its kind in the United States. The Fellowship activates individual leaders through a deeper understanding of a just, free and equitable society; serves as a convener for bringing together diverse perspectives to advance civil discourse; and provides infrastructure for taking action. Through the Fellowship’s affiliation with Aspen Institute, Liberty Fellows also become members of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. There are 350 Liberty Fellows working individually and collaboratively across South Carolina. Learn more at libertyfellowshipsc.org and algn.aspeninstitute.org.

About the Aspen Global Leadership Network: The Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) is a dynamic, worldwide community of nearly 4,000 entrepreneurial leaders from over 60 countries. Spanning business, government, and the nonprofit sector, these leaders share a commitment to enlightened leadership and the drive to tackle the most pressing challenges of our times. Through transformative fellowships and gatherings like the Resnick Aspen Action Forum, AGLN Fellows have the unique opportunity to connect, collaborate, and challenge each other to grow and make a meaningful impact.