A Black-led nonprofit will work with the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office to teach financial literacy and entrepreneurship to people incarcerated in the county’s jails.
As part of the Next Great 50 Entrepreneur initiative, select inmates receive eight weeks of training to improve their credit scores and acquire the skills they need to start their own businesses upon release.
The program is operated by Peace4Poverty, a Charlotte non-profit founded in 2020.
Sheriff Garry L. McFadden said the program will reduce recidivism.
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“We need to have the resources or a door that they can point to when they exit this building,” McFadden told reporters at the Mecklenburg Detention Center on Monday. “There is very little hope out there because we are not accepting our returning citizens like we should.”
Joshua Proby, founder of Peace4Poverty, knows life after incarceration firsthand.
At the age of 22 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison for first degree burglary, where he earned a degree in business administration. He was released in 2018 and later founded two companies – a trucking business and a clothing store.
Proby, now 38, said he wanted other ex-offenders to be better equipped than he was.
“It’s my duty to be able to fall back and give everyone the opportunity to come out not at a disadvantage but at an advantage,” he told QCity Metro.
The Next Great 50 program focuses on three groups – youth, underserved communities and now-returning citizens.
Proby said the nonprofit’s seven-member board of directors includes financial advisors, credit specialists and management consultants, all of whom contribute to the initiative.
The program consists of several components, with a focus on mental health support during the first two weeks.
“There is no need to teach our community or returning citizens or anyone else about money or business structures if their mindset hasn’t changed,” he said.
At least 150 inmates have signed up for the program, Proby said, but only 12 will be accepted at a time.
He said the high demand for the program proves that returning citizens “want to do better”.
The first classes begin October 10 in the detention centers.
