Fox Carolina News
GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) - Second chances are hard to come by if you've been incarcerated, according to Jerry Blassingame. A former inmate himself, Blassingame founded Soteria At Work, a place where people could find resources and skills to better re-enter society. Located on Shaw Street in Greenville, the 301C non-profit teaches skills like woodworking, provides a 16-bed transitional home for up to a year, job placement assistance, education, legal aid, and financial literacy.
"We all deserve second chances so there are some people who made a dumb mistake or didn't have the resources, and so we need to give people the tools and resources to better themselves," Blassingame says. "We've helped over 5,000 men and women in the last 20 years."
The Founder and CEO of Soteria At Work says they work with the Department Of Corrections to get referrals from prison. Bryan Stirling, the Director for the SCDC, says, "We know programming works, we know education works. We know if someone has a job, stable income, a place to stay when they leave, ID, they're much less likely to come back into prison."