Prison Entrepreneurship Guide

These programs offer prisoners around the country an opportunity to start new lives through entrepreneurship.

CALIFORNIA
The Delancey Street Foundation
Main Offices: San Francisco and Los Angeles
A unique program run by the Delancey Street Foundation provides a sentencing alternative for judges. Rather than sending a person to jail for a drug offense, or some similar non-violent offense, a judge can choose instead to assign them to work at a Delancy Street-run business. The organization runs restaurants, a furniture-making venture, a para-transit service, and a moving company. Everyone enrolled in the program learns useful trade skills and Delancy Street also has a history of grooming participants to set up their own businesses. With centers in California, New Mexico, New York and North Carolina, the program has grown over the past 35 years into one of the largest business-oriented rehabilitation programs in the country.
www.delanceystreetfoundation.org

Prisoner Reentry Employment Program (PREP)
Headquarters: San Diego
The PREP program enrolls recently released ex-prisoners in job training and a “Financial Freedom” program that features several workshops on establishing a small business. PREP, which an initiative run by an organization called Second Chance San Diego, will also arrange for housing (in a drug- and alcohol-free setting) for those without shelter.
www.secondchanceprogram.org

GEORGIA
Learning to Earn Project
Headquarters: Marietta
The Learning to Earn Project offers a six-hour class on entrepreneurship and a 12-week course that teaches inmates to become successful entrepreneurs. After inmates are released from prison, the program offers them ongoing mentorship and support. The Cobb County Sheriff's Office developed the project in collaboration with the Women’s Business Center at Kennesaw State University, and it is funded in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
www.theedgeconnection.com

ILLINOIS
Men’s Employment and Business Ownership Program (MEBOP)
Headquarters: Chicago
Sponsored by the Illinois Department of Corrections, MEBOP runs a 10-week Entrepreneurial Training Program, and places participants in apprenticeships at established businesses. The initiative is not prison-based, but more than 60 percent of the clients served have a felony record.
Phone: 312-386-9765

MANITOBA, CANADA
Curry New Venture Initiative
Headquarters: Winnipeg

This 13-week course teaches basic business skills to non-violent offenders and brings them on tours of local businesses. Members of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce provide mentoring support and employment advice, and several local business development services also contribute support. The program is run by the Asper Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Manitoba.
www.umanitoba.ca/entrepreneur

MICHIGAN
Nurturing a New Start
Headquarters: Grand Rapids
Serving primarily women incarcerated at the Kent County Correctional Facility near Grand Rapids, this program teaches financial literacy and other basic business skills to inmates. Students are also invited to take part in mentoring sessions and monthly networking meetings with alumni of the program and women who own businesses. To qualify, inmates must join the prison's work-release program or live in its Sober Living Unit. The YWCA, Planned Parenthood of West Michigan, and Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women (GROW) jointly run the project.
www.ppcwm.org