Changing
lives.
For good.
We unite executives and inmates through entrepreneurial passion and servant leadership to transform lives, restore families and rebuild communities.
The relationship begins behind prison walls.
The community, and the real test, continues on the outside.
What sets PEP apart is where we start: inside Texas prisons, building genuine relationships and equipping men with the character, skills, and entrepreneurial mindset to succeed. Then we walk it out with them, surrounding graduates with jobs, housing, mentorship, and a community that doesn't disappear at the gate.
Our Approach
Entrepreneurship
According to the Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO), formerly incarcerated individuals are more than twice as likely to become entrepreneurs than their never-incarcerated peers. An estimated 3.5 million U.S. business owners — 10.6% of all entrepreneurs, have spent time behind bars, employing more than 2 million people nationwide. Returning citizen entrepreneurs earn 11% more than formerly incarcerated individuals in traditional jobs and experience 33% lower recidivism rates.
Mentorship
PEP leverages mentorship to help returning citizens overcome one of the highest barriers to economic mobility: the stigma and isolation of incarceration. Volunteer mentors, many of whom are successful business executives, provide participants with the professional networks, real-world business knowledge and personal sponsorship that are typically inaccessible to formerly incarcerated individuals.
Families
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, 47% of people in state prison are parents of minor children, and 19% of those children are age 4 or younger. Once released, 27% of parents have wages garnished for child support. By ensuring meaningful employment and rebuilding the bonds between families, PEP breaks the cycle of poverty for generations.
Give today and
change a life
forever.
Your investment is one of the highest-yield philanthropic opportunities in America: 1.9× returned for every dollar you give, plus ripples of restoration that positively impact children, families, and whole communities.
Donate Now
// IN THEIR OWN WORDS
From locked away
to leading.
"PEP didn't just teach me how to run a business. It taught me who I was supposed to be."
For Emmanuel, the turning point wasn't release day but the moment a business executive sat across from him inside a Texas prison and treated him like a peer. That collision changed everything.
Today he runs his own company, employs others, and comes back to PEP as a volunteer.
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See transformation
in action.
// The Statistics
Two decades. Measurable transformation.
Volunteer
Sign up to volunteer
and create lasting impact.
Your expertise is someone's breakthrough. Step inside a Texas prison, judge a business plan, or mentor a graduate — and come out changed.
Volunteer With PEPFor Families
Incarceration separates.
PEP restores.
By ensuring meaningful employment and rebuilding the bonds between families, PEP breaks the cycle of poverty for generations.
- → Reentry planning that centers family restoration
- → Housing and employment that stabilizes the whole household
- → An alumni community that becomes a second family
- → Homeownership for 46% of program graduates
- → Support for children affected by a parent's incarceration
