Turning Pain into Purpose and Community into a Place of Healing

There are some leaders who build organizations, and there are others who build movements. Kandee Lewis, President and CEO of Positive Results Center (PRC), has spent nearly two decades doing both. As a nonprofit executive, community healer, advocate, trainer, and violence prevention expert, Lewis has dedicated her life to creating safer and healthier communities, particularly for young people, women, families, and individuals whose voices and experiences are too often overlooked. At the heart of her work is a simple but powerful belief: everyone deserves to be safe.

That belief has guided Positive Results Center since the organization began in 2008. Positive Results Corporation was started in 1991, by Kandee Lewis’ brother, Tony Newsom, a Los Angeles Police Officer. It became a nonprofit in 1994 and closed in 2003. Kandee took it over in 2008 but spent two years volunteering to understand what and how a nonprofit should operate. She officially started PRC in January 2010. Ms. Lewis changed the name to Positive Results Center (PRC) in 2019. Today, PRC is a culturally specific, trauma-informed nonprofit whose mission is to prevent and end the trauma resulting from domestic violence, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault. Its work has grown to encompass violence prevention, mental health access, reproductive justice, youth leadership, trauma recovery, and community healing across the greater Los Angeles area. But behind the programs and statistics is something even more important: people. Lewis understands that violence and trauma do not happen in isolation. They affect families, relationships, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and entire communities. Healing, therefore, cannot simply focus on what happened to someone. It must also address what people need to move forward. This philosophy can be seen throughout PRC's work.

In 2024 alone, Positive Results Center served 2,537 individuals, delivered 72 programs, and provided 1,450 hours of case management.  One of its signature initiatives is the Mental Health Ambassador Program, a 14-week paid leadership experience for young people ages 14 to 27. Participants receive mentorship, job-readiness preparation, stipends, and opportunities to lead community workshops while developing skills as peer advocates in mental health and violence prevention. In 2024, more than 3,000 training hours were invested through the initiative. PRC's Healing Through Trauma Initiatives use arts-based and healing-centered approaches to support survivors and families through group workshops, mindfulness, storytelling, and peer-support spaces.

The organization is also addressing reproductive justice and Black maternal health through culturally grounded education, perinatal mental health support, family resources, and community advocacy. Its community engagement programs provide another important bridge, connecting more than 1,000 families annually to health, safety, emergency assistance, and supportive resources. These initiatives demonstrate something Lewis has understood throughout her career: healthy communities are built by addressing the whole person. What makes Kandee Lewis' leadership especially relevant today is because of her willingness to have difficult conversations. Conversations about unhealthy relationships, trauma, reproductive justice, and the experiences of young people who are trying to find their way in an increasingly complicated world. These subjects are not always comfortable, but Lewis understands that silence rarely creates change.

Her work is rooted not only in helping people survive difficult experiences but also in creating environments where individuals can heal, develop leadership skills, strengthen their voices, and help transform the communities around them. And now Lewis is preparing to expand that voice. After years of building Positive Results Center and working directly within communities, there is an opportunity for her expertise to reach audiences far beyond PRC. Her experience places her in a unique position to contribute to conferences, panels, podcasts, corporate and nonprofit trainings, schools, public agencies, women's organizations, faith communities, and national conversations surrounding violence prevention, healthy relationships, mental health, wellness, and healing-centered leadership.

Her leadership offers an important reminder that expertise is not developed solely in boardrooms. Sometimes it is developed while sitting with families in crisis, listening to young people, advocating for survivors, navigating complex systems, building partnerships, and showing up year after year for communities that need someone willing to stay at the table. For Lewis, this next chapter is about both impact and evolution. She is helping them discover what healing can look like and then doing the work necessary to help create positive results. Shining a bright light on someone doing the work as we acknowledge and celebrate National Wellness Month.

Wendy is the Purpose Partner helping women go from Crossroads to Confidence, from Shaken to Unshakable, from Purpose to Power. To learn more visit WendyGladney.com and ForgivingForLiving.org