Cornbread Hustle, a Dallas-area program, has made its way to Pontiac, Michigan.
The free 90-day “transformation program” is providing assistance to returning citizens from jail or prison or recovering addicts by training them how to be entrepreneurs.
Launched in August 2016 by Cheri Garcia, Susy Solis, and Robert Bennett, Cornbread Hustle teaches participants about everything from social media etiquette and image to business and professional skills. At the end of the three-month course, participants pitch ideas to investors for a chance to win a cash prize and services.
Along the way, the program works to find employment for each participant; participants also can earn extra income by selling cornbread mix.
The program landed in Michigan after its organizers connected with Mario Bueno, who works with at risk youth and is co-founder and co-director of Luck Inc. in Detroit, according to The Oakland Press.
Garcia, a serial entrepreneur and former drug addict who is no stranger to incarceration, has had broadcast jobs with television stations in Fort Worth and Sherman. She also developed an inflatable tanning bed, patented as “Luminous Envy,” and currently runs RentEval and Cheri Garcia Consulting, according to the Little Elm Journal.
“All of these students are facing the same thing, so we create relationships with them; we teach them how to speak to others …”
SUSY SOLIS
She realized, through her experiences, that an entrepreneurship program for recovering addicts and felons would replace “drugs with another kind of addiction,” she told the Little Elm Journal.
“The high is so much higher than what drugs and alcohol can give you,” Garcia said.
Furthermore, the program provides the participants with the skills and confidence necessary to succeed outside of prison or jail.
“All of these students are facing the same thing, so we create relationships with them; we teach them how to speak to others, because at first, some of these students can barely even look you in the eye,” Solis told the Oakland Press. “By the end of the class, they’re on a stage and they’re pitching their idea.”
In addition to expanding the program geographically, those who run Cornbread Hustle want to extend its reach to single mothers and veterans interested in entrepreneurship, according to the Little Elm Journal.
Dallas Innovates, every day
R E A D N E X T
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At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas' fifth annual social innovation competition, local staffing agency for second chances Cornbread Hustle won $145,000 in funding. Also announced was United Way's plans to expand its social innovation work in North Texas with a new incubator program exclusively for women and entrepreneurs of color.
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