The People of The Second Chance

My heart is full today as I celebrate with my friends at Blue Jacket Inc. as they welcomed the community to the ribbon cutting and open house of their new facility. A facility I’m honored to take residence in. 

Today is not significant to me because they have a new building, even though it’s a fantastic building with massive amounts of energy and potential. 

Today is significant because of what they believe and what they do. Their motto, “A Second Chance is Everybody’s Business." Blue Jacket works with ex-fellons, usually the hardest to employ population in our community. They are passionate, dedicated, and most importantly, effective at it. They are expanding beyond fellons and will begin working with a variety of hard to employ folks.

I stood outside today looking at everyone in this picture who were here because they believe that giving a vulnerable, and often marginalized people group a second chance and they know that second chance revolves around getting them jobs. There were government officials, organizational leaders, pastors, community members, and friends who are fully behind the staff here. 

I’ve been in the office for the past two months and I’m completely impressed with this staff and the men and women who are in the program. They know they’ve made some bad decisions in the past and are working really hard to push beyond who they used to be. 

Everyone in this video we shot about the progress in the building are graduates of the program who are here volunteering their time to give back because they know this organization has helped them and being a positive part of the community is essential to living within their second chance. I can’t wait to have them out on NeighborLink projects.