Javier Medina is the walking portrait of a participant entrepreneur. An LA native, Javier has worked as a chef and owned his own food business. At Refoundry, Javier applies his creative, self-made mentality to the craft of upholstery. #everystoryhasvalue #peoplenotprisons

The Refoundry team is hard at work organizing and preparing the design lab space for our next cohort of participant entrepreneurs. This is how we do #reintegration #teamwork #reentry #criminaljusticereform

Our full-time, paid program offers 3 paths to #reintegration: placement in an upwardly mobile living wage job after 3 months; a career-track position after 7 months; business ownership after 12 months. #criminaljusticereform #reentry

Our program sits at the cross section of #criminaljustice, #racialjustice, #socialjustice, & #economicjustice. We train formerly incarcerated people to repurpose materials into meaningful & functional home furnishings. #reentry

We're sending a heartfelt congratulations to friend & long time supporter of Refoundry, Neil Stevenson. Neil celebrates his recent retirement from Lawyers Alliance where he stewarded LANY's Economic Opportunity program. We wish him well on this next, well-deserved chapter!

At Refoundry, we provide participants the opportunity to create positive and empowering narratives about themselves, often with incarceration as just one part of that story. #everystoryhasvalue

Our unique approach to reintegration centers on craft, commerce, and entrepreneurship. We focus on fostering leadership and job creators within the impacted communities that comprise 80% of our incarcerated population. 1/4

Most post-incarceration programs provide uniform services to the more than 650,000 people returning from incarceration each year: only 6-8 weeks of job training. Less than 50% of people served are placed in low-wage, low-skill jobs. 2/4

It's no wonder why of the over-fifty percent of people rearrested within a year of release, more than eighty percent are unemployed. 3/4

We set a high bar for our program to ensure participant success. We strive toward 100% participant retention, zero recidivism, and each and every graduate securing upwardly mobile, living-wage employment that prioritizes dignity. 4/4

Refoundry is reintegration reimagined, where every story has value. #peoplenotprisons #reintegrationreimagined

Maker spotlight: Carla Sandoval was a participant entrepreneur in our inaugural LA cohort. As a Californian through and through, she loves going to the beach, riding bakes, and spending time with family. #everystoryhasvalue #peoplenotprisons

The elegance of Refoundry's program is that it allows people to participate in hands-on, interactive, and impactful criminal and economic justice reform by doing what they do everyday: Shop for what they need. #peoplenotprisons

Refoundry simultaneously reintegrates participant entrepreneurs into the full economic, social and civic fabric of society, providing them the space and the tools to empower themselves, build resilience, and pursue their aspirations. Learn more: refoundry.org

Refoundry’s mission is to provide formerly incarcerated people with the skills and opportunity to achieve financial independence and become leaders and job creators in our communities.

• 10 businesses launched that employ 125 people from their communities • Environmental benefits: so far program has rescued 150 tons of materials from landfills • Tax savings: each Refoundry graduate has generated a net tax benefit of $100,000 per year