About the Nonprofit
Visit Our Website
In any given year, 8,500 New Yorkers are released from prison — joining an estimated 96,000 on probation and 43,000 on parole. 53% of those released are rearrested within 3 years. Countless studies have shown that these formerly incarcerated individuals receive little to no training and guidance reentering the workforce — on top of the fact that their prior records (and gaps in employment) often serve as insurmountable barriers to joining the workforce. Those lucky enough to find employment work almost entirely in manual labor jobs. Job opportunities involving skilled work are practically nonexistent.
Meanwhile, the podcast industry is experiencing explosive growth. Podcast advertising revenue is projected to exceed $1B by 2021. Between 2015 to 2018, the industry experienced a 65% annual growth rate. VC funding into podcasting companies is at an all time high. 2019 saw quadruple the funding and more than double the number of deals as in 2014. Jobs and demand for skilled new media labor will increase commensurately with this historical, and anticipated, growth.
Enter Second Chance Studios: a non-profit digital media company that trains and employs formerly incarcerated individuals in New York City. Our model is built on three pillars:
Experiential learning: Fellows learn essential on-the-job skills by running a full-service digital media studio that will have on-site video production, audio engineering equipment
Mentorship: Fellows will be paired one-on-one with a mentor who is an expert in their field. Fellows will spend one day per week on-site at their mentor’s company, learning their craft from a successful practitioner.
Job placement: Once graduated from the program, participants will receive aggressive job placement assistance.