Love is limitless, and Limitless is love
There is a small program at Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) that is working to help Nova Scotians make the difficult transition from the correctional system to the classroom, and into a life they can be proud of. “The Limitless program is an amazing program,” says Dayton Goree, Student Support Navigator for Limitless. “If I had to sum it all up into one word, that word would be LOVE. I am very proud to be a part of it.”
Limitless at NSCC
Limitless is a unique program of the School of Access, Education, and Language (SAEL) that begins inside provincial correctional facilities working with people in custody across Nova Scotia. Each participant must have a high school diploma or equivalent and complete a series of modules in personal development, career planning, and strategies for academic success before they can apply to move on to Limitless at NSCC.
As Student Support Navigator for Limitless, Dayton is part of the selection team that includes representatives from program partners, the Nova Scotia Department of Justice. He works with each successful applicant on an action plan tailored to their needs and helps them apply to NSCC programs.
Limitless provides the first year of tuition, books and fees for students, and Dayton and the SAEL management team help them find and access other funding. He also connects them to housing, and various government and community supports, whether that be mental health, addictions services, banking, or family services, and guides them through whatever they need through the program.
“The students that we work with obviously come with their own set of challenges that are not traditionally those challenges of post-secondary students,” Dayton says. As someone with a background in corrections, community support, and recreation, Dayton has the education and experience to build those community relationships, make those connections, and create opportunities for students. But it’s his lived experience that makes all the difference when it comes to supporting students.
Creating connection through lived experience
Dayton was once a single dad sleeping on the floor of a friend’s apartment in Edmonton when he made his way to the Catholic Social Services association to ask for a job. One of the nuns there recognized him and his two-year-old daughter from their regular bus ride chats and offered a ringing endorsement to the association director. “Talk about divine intervention,” he says.
He met with the director and shared about his life growing up in the Maritimes as an African Nova Scotian and Indigenous man, his struggles to raise his daughter alone, his past experience with the justice system, and his desire to put his faith into action in community. Before long, the director offered Dayton a job working with youth in group homes.
Seeing his gift working with people in conflict with the law, the director encouraged Dayton to get his diploma in corrections. After earning that diploma, he worked with offenders at Elpida House, a halfway house operated by Catholic Social Services for federal parolees, and with Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society and Boyle Street Community Services with people in conflict with the law.
Heading home to new opportunities
Dayton eventually made his way back to the Maritimes, settling in Halifax, where he worked for the public library in security and for the YMCA Alternative Suspension Program for youth, and continued his involvement in coaching and community support, especially for those in conflict with the law.
He later saw an opportunity to go back to school again, this time earning a Carpentry Diploma from NSCC. He was one of the oldest students in his class and was struck by the supportive experience at the College. “I really loved how instructors, counsellors and just people who work at NSCC really wanted the students to be healthy,” he says.
While running his carpentry business, Dayton explored creating a program to help others make the transition from the correctional system into post-secondary education. He learned that NSCC was starting a program for youth in conflict with the law in the School of Access, Education, and Language. They needed someone to support students in the program, and Dayton was the successful candidate.
“When SAEL school manager Tina Kelly said I got the job, I was over the moon,” he says. Tina and the rest of the SAEL management team saw how students benefited from Dayton’s practical approach, his lived experience, and his understanding of both post-secondary and correctional worlds. After that program ended, they hired him as the first Student Support Navigator for the already-existing Limitless program to improve service and outcomes.
Building trust and supporting others
Dayton currently supports about 32 people in various stages of their journey, and success looks very different for each one. He takes a 2 a.m. phone call from a student struggling with alcohol at a bar. He talks another out of fighting with a neighbour and jeopardizing the good life he has with his girlfriend. He helps them truly see and celebrate their progress when they do things differently.
He also walks them through the painful journey of shifting “life and death loyalties". “These people literally saved your life, you know. Somebody was going to kill you or pull a gun on you, and they stepped in front of it or, you know, they went shooting with you against people and now you're abandoning them,” he says. Dayton calls this period of a student’s life “no man’s land".
“There's that big stretch of maybe two years where you have to believe in yourself and gather those champions that believe in you because you already alienated all the people that you were with before,” he says. “And the ones that are on the brink of believing in you, you still have to prove yourself to them.”
Having Dayton there as someone who has experienced some of what they have, who talks real talk, who lives with integrity and in faith, and who they can trust to be there for them, is making a difference. “These students that we work with are hugely successful,” he said.
Celebrating success and changing lives
In June 2025, eight Limitless students graduated from NSCC trades, technology, business and criminal justice programs across Nova Scotia. However, graduation isn’t the only measure of success. “Even a student who just completed one semester, during that time they learned to budget, they learned time management, they learned to be consistent and compliant with probation conditions.”
And then there are life-changing stories. Just before Christmas, Dayton visited a student from a small rural community. The man showed him a letter his stepson presented at school. “The letter was like ‘I know some people think my dad is a bad guy, but he’s really been a good dad to me. He teaches me how to be respectful to my mom. He teaches me how important school is and not bullying people and so on,” Dayton recalls.
And the man said: “’I see where I'm at now and it's just amazing, right? It's amazing."
“He was crying. He’s just really reaping the benefits of living a healthy life. That’s really powerful,” Dayton says. The student found a great job supporting his family and has decided not to return for the second year of his program.
Not graduation but success, still.
That’s the kind of faith in action Dayton sought so many years ago, and he thanks the SAEL team’s unwavering commitment to the program and to the students they serve. “I love the School of Access. I am truly blessed to be with the School of Access, I really am.”