SecondChances
Reserve Your Seat
Neighbors gathering in a community garden
Hands holding letters and envelopes
Community volunteers working together
Garden plot behind a community center
People at a community meeting
Hands clasped in solidarity
Children visiting a community center
Neighborhood street with homes
Reentry graduation ceremony
Community members sharing a meal
Woman writing a letter at a desk
Urban neighborhood garden
Friends walking through neighborhood
Community support group meeting
Hands planting seeds in soil
Local block party gathering
Community members in conversation
Family reunion outdoors
Neighborhood mural on brick wall
Raised hands at a community event
Person reading a letter outdoors
Neighbors talking on front porch
Community center exterior
Volunteer crew planting a garden
Town hall meeting in progress
Potluck dinner table spread
Raised bed garden in vacant lot
Row houses on a sunny street
Kids running in a park
Hands in soil at community garden
Volunteers at a food bank
Neighborhood block association meeting
Letters and postcards on a table
Hands linked across a table
Street festival in urban neighborhood
Group of community leaders gathered
Outdoor family gathering on lawn
Colorful community mural on building
Audience raising hands at rally
Person writing a letter by window
Community Fundraising Gathering · March 15, 2026

This Block Believes
in Second Chances.

Reentry programs. Bail funds. Family visitation grants. Funded by the people who live here — for the people who grew up here.

Reserve Your Seat →Can't Attend — Donate Instead

City-Wide Picture

The numbers behind
every door on this block.

These aren't abstractions. Every figure below maps to a neighbor — someone who grew up two streets over, whose family is still here, waiting.

2,340

People returned home last year

68%

Re-incarcerated within 3 years — without support

12

Neighborhoods currently organizing

$124k

Raised by this community in 2025

Northside · Ward 4

One neighborhood.
Sixty-three families.

In Ward 4's Northside corridor, 63 families have at least one member currently incarcerated. Last year, SecondChances helped 11 of them cover visitation travel, 4 came home to jobs, and 2 had bail covered before their cases were dismissed entirely.

The corner store on Maple and 7th keeps a donation jar by the register. It's raised $1,840 in the last eight months. That's two bus trips, one week of childcare, and a background-check fee for someone who just needed a chance.

Reentry Employment Fund

$68,400 / $80,000

Job training, placement fees, and first-month living costs for people returning home.

86% funded

Emergency Bail Fund

$34,200 / $50,000

Pre-trial bail for low-income residents who cannot afford to wait in a cage for their court date.

68% funded

Family Visitation Grants

$21,750 / $30,000

Bus tickets, gas money, and childcare for families traveling to visit loved ones inside.

73% funded

One Person · One Letter

Marcus wrote this
eight months ago.

Received Nov. 14, 2025 · Beaumont Unit

Dear Whoever Opens This —

My daughter turned 9 last month. I know because my mother called collect and told me. I wasn't there. I haven't been there for three birthdays now, and the way the mandatory minimums work, I won't be there for two more.

What I want you to know is that I'm not writing to ask for anything for me. I'm writing because her mother works two jobs and still can't afford the bus to bring my daughter here. It's four hours one way. The visiting room is cold. They make kids take off their shoes.

I heard through the chaplain that there's a fund. That people in the neighborhood — people I don't even know — are putting money in so families can come. I don't have words for that. I just wanted someone to know it matters. Even here. Especially here.

With respect,
Marcus T.

Mother and daughter walking together in their neighborhood

Denise and Amara, Ward 4

Denise works 6am shifts at a hotel laundry and closes the register at a pharmacy on Tuesdays. After the SecondChances visitation grant covered their last two trips, Amara has now seen her father four times this year — more than the previous two years combined.

$340 in visitation grants · 4 visits · 1 family held together

"She knows his voice now. That's everything. That's the whole thing."

— Denise T., Northside

Community Voices

People who are already
inside this work.

The deacon, the public defender, the business owner. They're not waiting for someone else to fix this.

Faith Community

I've organized twelve benefit dinners in my life for causes that felt important. This one is different. I can tell my congregation exactly which family their casserole helped. That specificity changes everything about why people show up.

Deacon Raymond Okafor, community leader at First Baptist Church of Northside

Deacon Raymond Okafor

First Baptist Church of Northside

Ward 4

Legal Aid

I send this link to every client family. Most of them are terrified and broke and have no idea there are people in their own zip code who want to help. The visitation fund has meant that two of my clients actually stayed connected to their kids during pre-trial detention.

Camille Reyes, public defender sharing the platform with client families

Camille Reyes

Public Defender, 5th District

Downtown

Local Business

I had a warehouse manager, best I ever had, gone for 26 months on a drug charge for something he did once. When he came back he had nothing — no ID, no bank account, nowhere to sleep. The reentry fund covered his first month. He's been back three years. He runs the night shift now.

Gerald Fountain, local business owner supporting employee reentry

Gerald Fountain

Owner, Fountain Logistics & Supply

Eastside Industrial

Community Gathering

Reserve your seat
at the table.

Saturday, March 15th · 4:00 PM
Northside Community Center · 847 Maple Ave

A benefit dinner and organizing meeting for the people who already believe in this work and the people who are about to. Bring food if you can. Bring neighbors if you can. Just come.

🌱

Reentry program updates

Hear directly from 3 people who came home this year

📋

Bail fund progress report

Where the money went and who it helped

🤝

Next steps for organizers

How to bring this to your block or congregation

🪑

43 seats still available

847 neighbors have already reserved

Join us March 15th

Northside Community Center · Free admission

Can't Attend — Donate Instead

No ticket. No dress code. Just neighbors showing up for neighbors.