Triple Thread

What issue will Triple Thread address?

Triple Thread will partner with Dismas House, a halfway house which provides transitional housing and support services to men recently released from prison, to lower re-incarceration rates. The residents of Dismas House experience a significant period of unemployment upon entering the community. After eventually securing a part-time job, residents struggle to pay the monthly program fees of living at the Dismas House due to underemployment. Periods of unemployment and underemployment like these are significant risk factors for re-incarceration. Through the application of social enterprise and a job-training program, Triple Thread will broker a sustainable employment solution.

Why are we pursuing this specific issue?

Helping orphans is a very worthy cause and easy to connect to. Ex-criminals, on the other hand, can be hard to sympathize with. Because they lack recent employment and have a felony history, few businesses offer them jobs, forcing ex-offenders to resort to crime to get by. The residents of Dismas House do not wish to relapse, and society wants to reduce crime. We understand how rough around the edges rehabilitation of ex-offenders is as a cause, but despite its lack of initial allure, the success of ex-offenders is in everyone’s best interest. This disparity between appeal to society and societal benefit intrigues us, and we intend to address this disparity by blending the non-profit and the for-profit sectors.

How will Triple Thread solve this problem?

Triple Thread will empower ex-offenders to start their own business. Harnessing the large demand for custom screen-printed shirts, Triple Thread will:

1. create shirts at a level of quality such that customers would purchase from us regardless of the social benefit.
2. employ and teach valuable job skills to Dismas House residents, giving these men more marketable resumes in a tough job environment.
3. re-invest all profits back into the Dismas House, developing a sustainable source of income.

With immediate employment after release from prison, Dismas House residents will earn a sustainable income and be at a lower risk for re-incarceration. After a year of experience, residents will have the resume and recommendation necessary to gain employment elsewhere and allow new residents to enter the program.

***We created the video below last year before beginning work on Triple Thread. The purpose of the video is to encourage employers to hire Dismas House residents. A video for Triple Thread is in production.***

• Sandy Gunasekera wrote (1 month ago):

  What a way to help a stigmatized population. It is young people like you that will make the world a better place for everyone

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• Constantine Saclarides wrote (1 month ago):

  I am studying in the Dismas House right now with the ex-offenders who live here. They need jobs and can't wait for Triple Thread to launch!

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