JEVS Human Services - Looking Forward Program

This solution provides both business and life skills training to help justice-impacted individuals who currently or previously owned small businesses. 

The services will be based on years of Looking Forward client observations and program ideations of Temple SBDC Staff to implement sensitive and actionable cohort-based and individual-based services. Core services are a six week entrepreneurship course, offered in cohorts. This will be supplemented with one on one business consulting and wrap-around services as needed which may include, but are not limited to, business strategy support, business legal guidance, marketing and promotion counseling, financial documentation and management, digital marketing enhancement suggestions, inventory and production support, and operational and scaling advice. Simultaneously, participants will receive life skill classes and support with the emotional journey of reentering the community after incarceration. Our solutions include sensitivity awareness to clients with limited technology prowess and accommodations will be available, including offering digital literacy lessons in using Zoom and Google to help combat the digital divide. Clients will be shepherded through the available services with encouragement and sensitivity to maintain motivation and positive outcomes.  All participants will be required to prepare a sound business plan which will be shared with professional and peer mentors for their insights and perspective. This model facilitates making mistakes on paper, rather than wasting time and money on a business that will not contribute to their own financial stability. 

After incarceration, individuals face many challenges with financial stability at the forefront of those challenges. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), more than 600,000 men and women are released from prison each year. However, more than 70% of those individuals remain unemployed one year following their release. Additionally, the unemployment rate for justice impacted individuals is 24% which is higher than the peak of the Great Depression. One solution to this problem is to give returning citizens the tools and resources to successfully launch their own companies.

Unfortunately, approximately 20% of businesses fail within the first year. 33% of businesses with employees close within the first two years and more than half close within the first five. Nine out of ten business failures are caused by a lack of general business management skills and planning.

This project provides education, support, and guidance for returning citizens looking to grow and sustain their business venture.

Our solution specifically fosters business growth with comprehensive technical assistance that covers legal, fiscal management, marketing, and procurement, as well as loan preparation and connections in accessing capital.  SBDC Consultants are trained in these areas. 

The team is well connected in the entrepreneurial ecosystem and can connect clients to partners, mentors, and lenders.  Wrap around service in marketing and website development are available with the support of multiple Temple University departments and student resources.  

One on one support ensures a higher rate of follow-through for our clients. Our organization has learned that without it, many are unsure of how to apply classroom knowledge to their specific situations. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor & Statistics, approximately 20 percent of new businesses fail within the first year. In addition, according to the National Institute of Justice, almost 44% of those released from prison return before the first year out of prison, in large part due to the inability to find a job or a sustainable source of income. Justice impacted individuals are often overlooked by employers who do not want to hire someone with a record and therefore entrepreneurship, supported by careful business planning and support, is a vital option for those affected by this type of discrimination.

The target population includes justice impacted individuals, the overwhelming majority of which are minority men and women.

The JEVS Looking Forward Program, based in North Philadelphia, works with justice impacted individuals and other marginalized populations to overcome barriers to employment, life, and business. Understanding the needs of our target population is of the highest priority to Looking Forward. Our Resource Coordinator does an intake to identify the financial goals and life needs of each client. During this phase, we are able to identify individuals who had an established business prior to incarceration and assess what is needed to help the business survive and the person behind the business, thrive.

In 2021, the Temple SBDC served 1,780 clients. 64% were women, 43% were African American, and 75% live or have businesses located in a low-moderate income census tract. The SBDC believes in providing culturally sensitive consulting and offers introductory, intermediate, and advanced workshops and trainings to account for a diversity of experience and educational backgrounds.

Both Looking Forward and Temple SBDC operate in Pennsylvania. 

JEVS Human Services aims to Make Hope Happen. We do this by providing comprehensive and person-centered programming which leads to career pathwayS and success in their personal and professional lives. The JEVS program, Looking Forward, has its own specific mission to help justice-impacted individuals build life skills for long-term success. The mission of the Temple SBDC is to start and grow small businesses. Together, we aim to support small business owners who are journeying from incarceration back to their homes and communities. 

Pairing life skills and business skills for returning citizens in order to tackle the two problems: 1) financial stability for returning citizens and 2) business failure rate of entrepreneurs due to lack of planning. 

This solution will have an impact on the problem because it will enable justice-involved individuals to overcome the barriers and challenges of gainful employment post-release. Looking to examples of local entrepreneurs in Philadelphia like Michael Carter who was able to establish Down Home Pizza after serving time in prison and Bobby Harris of B.R. Trucking who has established ongoing contracts to provide trucking service throughout the City of Philadelphia. Both actively hire formerly incarcerated individuals and are proof that with education, guidance, support, and mentorship this model works.

There is no question that if you teach a man/woman to fish they will eat for a lifetime. This program aims to not only teach individuals how to fish and successfully run and operate their own businesses but will also serve to guide future reentrants as they are released from incarceration. The overarching purpose of this program is to provide a sustainable model which will continue as our students succeed and return to support future cohorts to rebuild and grow the businesses of their dreams. As we collect data of our program's success, expansion into other regions is possible. 

The Looking Forward Program has been servicing justice impacted individuals for the past 4 years. This will be the first project that will specifically target small business owners. However, Looking Forward can identify 9 justice-involved individuals with businesses that they have assisted with wrap-around support services and life skills training. With the launch of this new program, we hope to serve 27 individuals each year with a goal of 135 individuals in five years. 

# Served Per Year 27

# Served in Five Years 135

The Temple SBDC served 1,780 small businesses last year. 

Our participants reside and conduct business in low-income areas, with high rates of unemployment. Key decision makers/stakeholders will be Temple University, the workforce development board, the Small Business Mentoring Initiative, City of Philadelphia, and the 138 partner organizations in the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition. Each will provide support for participants as they navigate challenges of operating small businesses. 

In May 2021, the Philadelphia Department of Commerce, United Way, and Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation published a report called “Philadelphia Equitable Entrepreneurship Ecosystem Assessment and Strategy.”The study used surveys & interviews of small business owners/stakeholders to analyze the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Philadelphia. Temple SBDC was identified as one of the key trusted partners in the ecosystem. The study proposed that one on one assistance was a crucial solution to the hardships facing many minority-owned businesses in Philadelphia that struggled before and especially since the start of the COVID pandemic.

The Looking Forward Program was founded by Jeffrey Abramowitz, a justice involved individual who had trouble finding employment when he was released from prison. Jeffrey currently is the Executive Director of Justice Partnerships at JEVS Human Services. Over the course of the past five years Jeff has become a nationally recognized subject matter expert on reentry, workforce development, and adult education. 

Our Executive Director, Nigel Bowe, has worked in the re-entry field for more than 20 years where he actively engages with those in our population on a weekly basis to discuss their needs. Our solution works because both regularly meet with clients to access their needs. To address the needs of our population, our organization has established over 100 partnerships in the community that we currently use to help our clients with their needs. Our primary partner for this grant is the Temple University SBDC, which is located in the North Philadelphia community where our target audience resides. Both organizations regularly survey their respective populations to get feedback on the impact of services.

Looking Forward and JEVS, our host organization, have strong reputations for relationship building. JEVS stakeholders work to shape and influence public policy to better serve the populations who need us most. Acting in collaboration with our advocacy partners, JEVS works to create sustainable solutions to the underlying issues facing the people we serve. As a well recognized workforce development agency in the region, JEVS referrals come from existing contracts with the Pennsylvania Department of Correction, U.S. Bureau of Prisons, City of Philadelphia, and reentry programs.

In addition to weekly reentry support programming, we have a yearly outdoor service fair where we invite our partners to interact with our clients. We include information about our business program during weekly orientation with clients. Since some of our clients had businesses before incarceration, our workforce development specialist reaches out to those clients who would like to use our program to revive their businesses.  

Our impact goals are as follows:

• YEAR 1: Help a minimum of 27 returning citizens re-establish the businesses they had prior to incarceration. This will be done by having each client take advantage of the business education training with the Temple University SBDC.
• YEAR 2: Have clients who have re-established their business mentor new program cohorts. Our Workforce Advisor Specialist will invite the business owners to participate as mentors.
• YEAR 3: Encourage clients who have completed program to hire justice-involved individuals from the Looking Forward workforce development program. This task will be performed by our Job Developer, who is responsible for employer outreach.
• YEAR 4: Have Year 4 graduates serve as angel investors during our pitch competition. Angel investors can contribute any amount of money at their discretion to entrepreneurs whose business they like.
• YEAR 5: Help a total of 135 clients go through the program to stabilize, revive and scale their businesses.

Jeff Abramowitz is the founder of the Looking Forward Program. Having served time in prison, he created the program to help others like him overcome discrimination barriers to re-enter the workforce. Jeffrey, along with our Executive Director, Nigel Bowe, who has worked in Re-Entry for nearly 20 years, understand the unique needs of justice-involved individuals.

Our Resource Coordinator, Melanie Malcolm is the first point of contact for our clients. She has previously worked with justice-involved individuals at a prison and performs the initial intake to identify clients who are entrepreneurs.

Our Workforce Development Specialist, Sylvia Scott provides supportive services to help the client get access to support services such as transportation and work clothing and counseling as they re-integrate back into society. When not at the program, she runs a life coaching and speaking business.

The Job Developer, Jacquelyn Starr, provides employment for clients who need a job while they are re-establishing their business. Once their business is generating revenue, our clients will be able to take advantage of Ms. Starr's vast pool of employees in our Looking Forward Re-Entry program.

We are most looking forward to the access to resource partners and the comprehensive needs assessment to find the appropriate geographical scale for the initial and later phases of our solution. 

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We would like help in achieving a scalable model and solidifying a phased approach with milestones that are attainable. 

We may look to partner with SCORE to find industry-specific mentors for our participants as an added component of support. We will be partnering with many of the 138 organizations in the Philadelphia Reentry Coalition for a wide variety of wrap around supports, as well as with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, City of Philadelphia, and Small Business Mentoring Initiative.

Additionally, we hope to leverage the resource of our partner, Temple University in this project.