Rocky Gonzales is a dedicated mentor, facilitator, and youth advocate whose powerful life story and unwavering commitment to transformation continue to inspire youth, system-impacted individuals, and communities across California.

After years of deep self-reflection, Rocky recognized how childhood trauma, unresolved grief, anger, shame, and guilt influenced his life decisions and led him down a destructive path of violence, gang involvement, and incarceration. Having a 74-year with multiple life term sentence, Rocky hit rock bottom but it was within that darkness that he began a profound journey of healing and growth.

Through participation in self-help groups, psychological education, and intensive introspection, Rocky dismantled the belief systems that once controlled his life. He spent over seven years facilitating programs inside state prisons, including anger management, domestic violence prevention, criminal and addictive thinking, and victim impact groups. His most significant breakthroughs came as a mentor and peer facilitator in the Youth Offender Program (YOP) and the Junior Mentor Program, where he supported young men entering prison under the age of twenty-five.

Rocky's lived experience gives him a unique ability to connect with youth. His approach is rooted in empathy, transparency, and non-judgment, offering young people a safe space to share, process trauma, and rewrite their future. He helps youth understand how early life experiences impact decision-making to break cycles of violence and incarceration.

Since his release, Rocky has remained active in community-based youth diversion programs, regularly mentoring court-referred youth and providing group sessions focused on emotional regulation, suicide prevention, and personal accountability. He has never lost sight of his purpose: ensuring that no child feels the same deep loneliness or hopelessness he once did. His ongoing motivation is to be a voice of hope and a living example that transformation is always possible.

Rocky continues to mentor both inside and outside prison walls, returning to the very institutions that once held him not to relive the past, but to rewrite the future for others. He believes the greatest form of expertise comes not just from knowledge, but from surviving and transcending lived trauma.