A Charlotte workforce development group plans to open a digital tech repair space Thursday in one of the city’s low-income Corridors of Opportunity. It’s part of their efforts to help those who have been formerly incarcerated gain access to employment.
The 1,400-square-foot space will open at 5430 North Tryon St. in the West Sugar Creek Corridor in northeast Charlotte. Inside, formerly incarcerated individuals will fix items such as laptops, phones and printers. Henry Rock is the founder of City Startup Labs. He says the goal is to create a pathway for a group often overlooked.
"They are on the margins, on the sidelines, rather than in the game of business development and entrepreneurship, and we want to make sure that these folks are able to demonstrate their worth,” Rock said.
City Startup Labs was founded in 2014 to provide job training to those who are formerly incarcerated and to show them how to start businesses.
Elsworth Usher Jr. is someone who served time in jail and is one of the individuals who will help oversee the repair business, called ReConnex. He says the venture is a way to showcase how formerly incarcerated people can reshape their lives.
“It's possible. It does not mean that it's over," Usher Jr. said. "It does not mean that life has ended. It does not mean that you have to continue down a set path that was put in front of you because of any past mistake that might have happened.”
Four program recipients will co-own the business. In 2024, City Startup Labs received a $400,000 state grant from the North Carolina Department of Information Technology for the pilot program.
The group hopes to expand the initiative into the city’s other Corridors of Opportunity.
