Katrina Butler had a lot of time to dream during her nearly five years in prison.
She knew when she was released in February 2021, she wanted to help other people who had also been incarcerated. But there are often barriers to traditional employment, like background checks, that block opportunities.
“A lot of individuals use entrepreneurship to get around that, to be able to take care of their families and to keep a sense of their self-worth,” Butler said.
Entrepreneurship can be difficult, especially for those who have been in prison. To help that community, the Atlanta Hawks and Chase on Tuesday hosted a series of financial health workshops for 10 business owners, including Butler, to help them on their journey.
The workshops were taught by Chase’s small business consultants. The first focused on personal finance, like saving and budgeting, and the second focused on business finance, like how to navigate cash flow and access capital from banks and government programs.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“People who are formerly incarcerated are one of the last groups to be seen as a group of people that needs help,” said Patrick Rodriguez, director of Georgia State University’s Prison Education Project, which provides post-secondary degree opportunities in Georgia prisons. Rodriguez worked with Chase and the Hawks to recommend some of the entrepreneurs who participated in the event.
“Programs like this are important because it brings visibility to the challenges of the criminal legal system, and it also provides access to resources and education for some fundamental elements of life that justice-involved people might not have,” he said.
Hawks guard Trent Forrest also came and spoke to the entrepreneurs about finances, and the Hawks are bringing the group to next week’s game against the Detroit Pistons.
Forrest told the entrepreneurs to stay consistent and believe in their business.
“Just because it might not be for somebody tomorrow, that doesn’t mean it might not be for the next person two days from now, a year from now ... You never know when you might just get your break in your business,” he said.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
The event was hosted at the Chase Summerhill Community Center, a type of branch that has an increased focus on workshops and personal finance education for clients. It opened last April and is a part of Chase’s $30 billion racial equity commitment the financial giant made in 2020 in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
Chase has three small business consultants in Atlanta who provide free mentorship to entrepreneurs who have an established business and help them scale their company, according to Brigitte Killings, Chase’s Community and Business Development Director for the South.
Tuesday’s event was purely educational. It did not include financial contributions from the Hawks or Chase to the entrepreneurs.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
About nine months after being released from prison, Butler started her own social impact consulting firm, Different Souls on One Accord. She provides mentoring for reentry programs and offers life coaching for formerly incarcerated people, with a particular focus on mothers and victims of domestic violence who are incarcerated as well as the experiences of their children.
Butler consulted on a reentry program that Iyana Herbert, another entrepreneur who took part in Tuesday’s event, went through after being released last June.
Herbert has a dream to open Aerial Innovations, a post-op cosmetic surgery recovery center. Tuesday’s event had a lot of good insight on staying focused on the goal, Herbert said.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
It also taught her things that she didn’t really feel were important, “like credit, money management … because how you take care of your personal is how probably going to manage your business.”
Herbert hopes to open Aerial Innovations in the next year and a half to two years. She’s determined, despite the potential pitfalls of entrepreneurship.
“It’s a scary thought to have to quit a job and put yourself out there on a leap of faith,” she said. “I think I’ve gotten to the point where, you know, there’s no excuses. There’s no more fear left in me. It’s just work for it.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Report for America are partnering to add more journalists to cover topics important to our community. Please help us fund this important work at ajc.com/give
About the Author
