A Charlotte workforce development group was awarded today a $400,000 dollar grant to launch a digital tech repair program. It will help provide career opportunities to those who are formerly incarcerated, while also providing tech services for low-income households.
City Startup Labs received the grant from The North Carolina Department of Information Technology. The ReConnex program will train formerly incarcerated people to fix digital devices like computers, phones, and printers.
Henry Rock, the founder of City Startup Labs, said the plan is to launch the social venture as a co-op where employees benefit.
“We’re hoping that the folks that are part of the team that builds this business and manages and operates this business will also get a share of the spoils. This would be a collaborative effort between City Startup Labs and the folks that will be running the company,” Rock said.
The group plans to deploy ReConnex in one of the city’s six low-income Corridors of Opportunity to give residents better access to technology aid in their communities.
“We want to make sure that they got local tech support available to them," Rock said. "We want to make sure that they don’t have to go far afield in order to get their devices back up and running.”
City Startup Labs hopes to launch ReConnex next year and expand to the city’s five other corridors.
The group, founded in 2014, provides job training to those who are formerly incarcerated and shows them how to start businesses.
