A Charlotte program meant to help close the digital divide while also providing job opportunities for formerly incarcerated people has shut down after one year of operation.
ReConnex, a reentry program that employed participants to repair laptops and cellphones for community members, closed last month. The initiative launched with a $400,000 state grant from the North Carolina Department of Information Technology and operated from a 1,400-square-foot facility in northeast Charlotte.
The program was started by City Startup Labs' founder Henry Rock, who said the business model did not work as hoped.
"It was not the sustainable enterprise we hoped for," Rock said. "We built it to test whether or not a device or technology repair business could simultaneously generate revenue, address the community need ... and function in a workers' ownership model for formerly incarcerated folks."
In June, Reconnex partnered with the Center for Digital Equity to offer free repairs on items for community members.
Despite the closure, Rock said the program provided valuable lessons about the challenges of operating a technology repair business while pursuing a social mission.
"We tested an idea in the real world, learned from it where the economics and the operating model were weak, and made the decision not to keep subsidizing this when it wasn't demonstrating sufficient sustainability," Rock said.
