In a third-grade class in Riviera Beach, Florida, the teacher handed out five packs of crayons, and seventeen children got none. One boy thought that was unfair. He stole seventeen packs and gave one to each classmate who had gone without.
That boy was William Freeman. He knows now that stealing the crayons was wrong. He also understands the third grader who wanted to do something for the kids around him, and he has carried that instinct to look after others through the hardest stretches of his life.
Today, William leads People of Purpose, the Belle Glade nonprofit he founded to help returning citizens, people coming home after incarceration, rebuild their lives. On November 14, People of Purpose will host its Walk in My Shoes fundraiser. Before the event, we want you to meet William and see how he turned a promise he made while incarcerated into support for hundreds of his Palm Beach County neighbors.
Raised to put others first
William was born in Pahokee in 1968 and spent his childhood in Riviera Beach, where his mother and grandmother raised him with six siblings. In their house, generosity was a rule: if a person needed help, you gave it, and other people’s needs came before your own. His uncle Gary, who served in the military and later retired from the Post Office, taught him to keep giving people another chance.
William would need that lesson for himself. He enlisted in the Navy at nineteen. The service did not suit him, and he came away feeling he had failed. In the years that followed, he spent time in Florida’s jails and prisons. At forty-nine, he made himself a promise: once this sentence ended, he was done with prison for good.
A plan written on the inside
He used the time. By the end of his sentence, William held more than thirty certifications, from a commercial driver’s license to Thinking for a Change, a cognitive behavioral program. In Toastmasters, he earned a Bronze Communication award and found the voice he now uses as a speaker and advocate.
A few mentors inside convinced William that his life still had a purpose. He studied why landlords and employers kept turning returning citizens away, and how little support people found when they walked out the gate. He began sketching plans for an organization he first called Man of Purpose.
Coming home and bringing others with him
William came home in 2019. In January 2020, he turned those plans into People of Purpose, and several of the people who mentored him in prison joined its board. He trained as a Peer Specialist so he could sit across from returning citizens as someone who has made the same trip.
That October, Florida held its first general election open to many residents who had completed felony sentences. William, then leading the Palm Beach chapter of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, walked a group of fellow returning citizens to West Palm Beach City Hall to cast their ballots. For William, it was the first vote of his life. “I had to catch myself for a minute,” he told CBS12.
The work of People of Purpose
From its home base in Belle Glade, People of Purpose serves returning citizens across Palm Beach County and two neighboring counties. About 1,200 people come home after incarceration to Palm Beach County each year, and William’s team works to reach them in those first days back.
The help is practical. A team member picks up people leaving prison or jail and gives them a ride home. Mentors who have come home themselves help returning citizens map out goals and practice for interviews. Staff connect people to housing and mental health care through local partners, and they gather donated clothes and furniture for people furnishing a new place.
Beyond the basics, the team organizes pickleball games and beach walks, because healthy routines and good company help people build a life outside. BeWell PBC has supported William’s Pickleball with a Purpose program, which brings returning citizens and their families onto the same court.
At Flawless, we believe in the healing power of rhythm and relationship. A Saturday game with your teenager gives you both a reason to laugh and a reason to come back next week. After years away, a smartphone full of apps you don’t recognize and a job application that asks about your past can push your nervous system into overdrive. A mentor who has stood where you stand can help you carry that weight.
Since 2020, People of Purpose has supported more than 650 returning citizens. Only five of them have returned to prison.
Walk in My Shoes
People of Purpose launched Walk in My Shoes in Wellington in November 2024. That first night, community leaders took turns on a runway while narrators told the stories of people who had been incarcerated covering their lives before prison and after it. Guests bid in silent and live auctions and competed in a sneaker contest, and their ticket money supported the services above.
Ahead of that first event, William said many people “are unaware of the challenges returning citizens face.” His team fills that gap with the voices of people who have lived those challenges. For one evening, you hear what a job rejection or a lease denial costs someone trying to start over, and you leave knowing their names.
The Flawless team will be there on November 14, and we hope you will join us. Buy a ticket and bring a friend who is new to the subject of reentry. If you cannot attend, schedule a free pick-up of clothing or furniture, and People of Purpose will pass it to someone rebuilding a home. Find event details and ways to give on the People of Purpose website.
Decades after that third-grade class, William still notices who went without, and he still finds a way to put something in their hands. Thank you, William, for handing out the crayons.
