Breaking Through Barriers

In a world filled with dysfunction, futility, and confusion, people are looking for meaning and significance. They want to break through the barriers holding them back. BREAKING THE BARRIERS offers three foundational pillars to equip readers for overcoming the most difficult obstacles in their lives. These three pillars teach readers how to: -Take on the character of God the Father -Take on the wisdom of the Son -Take on the discipline of the Spirit. Through dynamic stories of people who have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, and the powerful example of the author who has overcome great adversity in his own life, this book shows readers that God is on their side and desires for them to fulfill the dreams and purposes he has placed in their hearts.

Johnny Quinn shares his “wild dream” of playing in the NFL, being crushed after getting cut three times, losing $2.6 million in contracts, and blowing out his knee. At age thirty, when most professional athletes are considered “over the hill,” Johnny was competing for Team USA in the sport of bobsled at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. This book ushers readers through the valleys of life to the thrills of rocketing down icy mountains at 80+ mph with no seat belt. Discover how the author overcame failure on the road to achieving greatness. From an NFL failure to a US Olympian, Johnny Quinn had a “what’s next” attitude that led him to success he had never imagined. In Push, he looks at failure as a season of life rather than a death sentence. He provides incredible insight into the “what’s next” instead of “what could have been.” We all experience failure at some level; Quinn equips us to embrace change, accept risks, and learn to push through barriers, to live life on purpose.

Have you ever felt like life was beating up on you because you dared to be different or tried to defend what you felt was right? This author describes the painful details from her childhood as she pioneered during the most challenging times of her life-the times when schools in the South were being desegregated. Although the challenges described in this book took place during the Civil Rights Movement, the experiences shared by the author are by no means limited to color barriers. The author shares her story to encourage anyone who may be perceived as different-no matter if they are young or old, tall or short, overweight or not, shy or out-going, or male or female. This book is written for anyone who may be feeling despair because they have been mistreated in life. It is written to encourage you to face life's challenges and to believe that God will give you the strength to break through barriers.

Is there an unidentified hindrance in your life? For transformation to begin, we need to diagnose the obstacles to blessing in our lives. Sins, wounds, and demons are the three general areas where most problems occur. David Legge seeks to help you identify and overcome these hindrances, releasing you to a life of blessing and fulfilment.--R.T. Kendall, author of Total Forgiveness, Prepare Your Heart for the Midnight Cry, A Man after God's Own Heart, and other titles

"With job opportunities in decline for youth with no postsecondary degree, and college completion rates especially for students of color stagnating, a high school diploma is no longer enough. To solve this large-scale global problem. High school must be completely redesigned and reinvented providing all students real opportunity with both equity and excellence. P-TECH (Pathways in Technology Early College High School) has done just that by combining public high schools and community colleges in partnership with employers, providing both opportunity and support for all students, regardless of income, race or any screen for admission. Unlike many school models, this innovative and effective approach has spread across the US and around the world, eliminating barriers to replication by engaging all stakeholders. The first P-TECH, opened in a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood, across from a public housing project, and served 100% students of color. It has become the model for school reform across over a dozen US states and nearly twenty countries. Praised by President Obama, governors in red and blue states, and heads of nations, its story is told in this book through the personal stories of students who have destroyed the myths about which students can succeed. Their stories demonstrate that all students, if given the opportunity and support, can reach great heights in high school, college, and career"--

For nearly sixty years, the University of Oklahoma, in obedience to state law, denied admission to African Americans. Only in October 1948 did this racial barrier start to break down, when an elderly teacher named George McLaurin became the first African American to enroll at the university. McLaurin’s case, championed by the NAACP, drew national attention and culminated in a U.S. Supreme Court decision. In Breaking Down Barriers, distinguished historian David W. Levy chronicles the historically significant—and at times poignant—story of McLaurin’s two-year struggle to secure his rights. Through exhaustive research, Levy has uncovered as much as we can know about George McLaurin (1887–1968), a notably private person. A veteran educator, he was fully qualified for admission as a graduate student in the university’s School of Education. When the university denied his application, solely on the basis of race, McLaurin received immediate assistance from the NAACP and its lead attorney Thurgood Marshall, who brilliantly defended his case in state and federal courts. On his very first day of class, as Levy details, McLaurin had to sit in a special alcove, separate from the white students in the classroom. Photographs of McLaurin in this humiliating position set off a firestorm of national outrage. Dozens of other African American men and women followed McLaurin to the university, and Levy reviews the many bizarre contortions that university officials had to perform, often against their own inclinations, to accord with the state’s mandate to keep black and white students apart in classrooms, the library, cafeterias and dormitories, and the football stadium. Ultimately, in 1950, the U.S. Supreme Court, swayed by the arguments of Marshall and his co-counsel Robert Carter, ruled in McLaurin’s favor. The decision, as Levy explains, stopped short of toppling the decades-old doctrine of “separate but equal.” But the case led directly to the 1954 landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which finally declared that flawed policy unconstitutional.

Unacceptably high rates of stress, anxiety, sleeplessness, and divorce have plagued the law enforcement profession for decades. Ask most police officers, firefighters, paramedics, prison guards, and anyone associated with police wellness and they will tell you "everything is fine." Yet the rate of police suicide continues to climb because of the profession's stigma against seeking help. Officers embrace their responsibility "to preserve and protect" by taking care of others ... but who is taking care of them? Through interviews with some of the most renowned professionals in their fields, author and speaker Dr. Ron Rufo, a highly decorated, 22-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, puts a spotlight on the importance of seeking mental health intervention before a minor issue becomes a major crisis. In Breaking the Barrier, Rufo's fourth book and his second on police wellness, he explains why emotional wellness is as essential as officers' tactical training. He and dozens of supportive professionals-from the fields of psychology, sleep medicine, religion, leadership management, epidemiology and environmental health, holistic medicine, exercise physiology, and alternative medicine-offer strategies to achieve and maintain emotional, physical, psychological, and spiritual wellness throughout an officer's career. Ron Rufo is on a crusade to rid the law enforcement profession of its constant and relentless shadow of despair. After describing the history of the police culture that contributes to today's physical and mental health issues, he presents a cornucopia of tools for intervention and support to help all law enforcement officers achieve a work/life balance that will lead to a long, healthy, and well-deserved retirement.