// A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO

Though it doesn’t feel like fall at all, PEP recently began both cohorts of the Fall Business Plan Competition. The instructors of the program, all of which are volunteers (even our Director of Education), recently met to discuss what we feel is working well and what needs to be improved. We are always tweaking and the summer pause seemed to be a good time to take a bigger step back. Among the many things we clarified are: 

Recognizing that our goal is not to churn out entrepreneurs; rather to use the instruction of entrepreneurship as a vehicle for transforming lives. There was a day when entrepreneurship was really the only path someone with a felony record had to meaningful employment, but that day has passed. In fact, roughly 80% of our participants are not business owners, but are meaningfully employed working for someone else. However, there is a strong tendency to celebrate one more than the other, so the shift is to emphasize entrepreneur (if you will) as “verb” more than a “noun.” This is to say, PEP aims for everyone to think entrepreneurially, whether they own their own business or work for someone else. Moreover, thinking entrepreneurially applies to their personal lives as they are forced to start over, accept loss, try hard things, take risks, and the like. In this regard, an expanded understanding of entrepreneurship becomes a way of life.

I should add that this understanding is not new to PEP, but nor has it been emphasized. The shift is not one of approach, but rather of communication and emphasis.

This past July, I took a strategic step to reinforce this thinking and promoted Madonna Riley from Grants Manager to the Director of Economic Mobility Programs.

As the person who has been articulating what we do for several years, Madonna understands the need for entrepreneurship and workforce development support.

Another discussion point was how to better use case studies to provide a stronger foundation for business plans; standardize financial portions of the business plan with templates with a goal of making this section easier to understand and present. Additionally, some reality is needed in regard to start-up costs and loans. Many of the business ideas put forth need mentors and advisors before they are ready for capital. An evolving misconception since the advent of Entre Capital is that it will provide the financing to start a business, but one of the many reasons Entre Capital has a 95% payback rate is because their investment evaluation assessment requires documentation of business taxes filed. Thus, Entre Capital is there to grow a business, not launch one. This means that well thought out business plans will present what is needed to launch, then what is desired to grow. As many of us know, these are very different numbers.

The one caution to this is that we don’t want to kill dreams or hear a lot of pitches for landscaping businesses in the competition, which used to be the case. We want to make sure that we provide realistic, meaningful approaches to restarting a life. Remember, this is not about convincing everyone that they can be an entrepreneur, but it is about helping everyone think entrepreneurially, especially when it comes to returning to society after being incarcerated.

— Chris Valka, Chief Executive Officer

// WINGS OF IMPACT

Have you ever noticed volunteers with pinned PEP Wings? Each color represents a volunteer hour milestone, from white all the way to gold. Now we have a new color, blue, to recognize our monthly donors.

Did you know that 100% of our staff are monthly donors? Or that 28% of all individual donors are alumni of the program? PEP has to raise $400,000 each month to operate, and we receive no public funding.

Outside Event

Provide quality feedback on participants’ business models that will encourage participants to improve and continually develop ideas; to serve as a business coach to further develop business ideas; Networking with participants and other attendees.

Round 2: Lychner Fall 2026 Business Plan Competition

Evaluate and score the second round of business pitches on four key elements: Demand creation; Ability to fulfill demand; Marketing; and Presentation. Your input and feedback will help decide the final teams competing at the Business Plan Competition Event.

Outside Event

In conjunction with eSchool, executive volunteers are invited to a monthly networking event with our participants in Houston and North Texas. The event aims to connect you with eSchool participants and support them in developing their vision, creating resumes, leveraging LinkedIn, etc.

Outside Event

In conjunction with eSchool, executive volunteers are invited to a monthly networking event with our participants in Houston and North Texas. The event aims to connect you with eSchool participants and support them in developing their vision, creating resumes, leveraging LinkedIn, etc.

Outside Event

Provide quality feedback on participants’ business models that will encourage participants to improve and continually develop ideas; to serve as a business coach to further develop business ideas; Networking with participants and other attendees.

Round 2: Estes Fall 2026 Business Plan Competition

Evaluate and score the second round of business pitches on four key elements: Demand creation; Ability to fulfill demand; Marketing; and Presentation. Your input and feedback will help decide the final teams competing at the Business Plan Competition Event.

Take a deeper dive with the business teams on Vision & Objective, Product/Service, and Marketing.

Take a deeper dive with the business teams on financial budgeting and making the Ask.

Work 1×1 with a team by doing market research, answering questions, and editing business plans.

// ESTELLE UNIT MILESTONE

Congratulations to PEP’s very first graduating class from the Estelle Unit’s Incentivized Housing pathway! This group of men voluntarily stepped into a values-structured way of living inside the prison, holding one another accountable not because policy demanded it, but because they chose that standard together. Their graduation marks the launch of this pathway in Texas — a model built to reach men who may never qualify for our Core Program, while also strengthening the pipeline of future Core participants who arrive having already lived out these values. We are proud of what this first class has built at Estelle, and even more excited about what it represents: the beginning of a pathway designed to scale to over 40,000 participants as incentivized housing expands across state systems nationwide. Congratulations, gentlemen — you set the standard for everyone who follows.

// JOIN OUR TEAM

FaithSearch Partners is leading the search for our new Chief Development Officer. The CDO will lead a passionate, committed team and shape the fundraising strategy that fuels PEP’s next chapter, scaling our impact, deepening donor relationships, and securing the institutional support needed to expand access to second chances, economic empowerment, and personal restoration.

As friends of PEP, your recommendations for candidates are valued. For more information about the opportunity or to recommend candidates, please contact Laura Weaver at lweaver@faithsearchpartners.com or Brian Jensen at bjensen@faithsearchpartners.com. All inquiries will be held in strict confidence.

// PARTICIPANT’S VOICE

I want to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude and appreciation for having the opportunity to experience the Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP). Looking back, I can honestly say that PEP gave me much more than knowledge and practical skills. It challenged the way I thought, stretched me beyond my comfort zone, and introduced me to values that continue to shape my life today.

At first, I struggled with the value of Fun. After spending nearly two decades in prison, I had become conditioned to survive. Survival mode teaches you to stay guarded, serious, and emotionally reserved. 

When I first arrived at PEP, the daily dancing made me feel incredibly uncomfortable and awkward. It was completely outside of my comfort zone. I remember thinking, “What does this have to do with personal growth?”

But through PEP’s daily repetition, consistency, and encouragement, something began to change. Dancing wasn’t really about dancing. It was about learning to let go, to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, to laugh at myself, and to reconnect with a part of my humanity that had been buried beneath years of survival.

Today, that lesson continues to bless my family. Since coming home, I’ve intentionally tried to lead my family with that same value. My stepdaughter especially loves it when I dance goofy with her. She’ll put on a song, encourage me to dance, and watching her laugh and smile is something I cherish. Those moments remind me that joy is not a distraction from life, it is one of God’s blessings and one of the ways healthy relationships are strengthened. PEP helped me recover something prison had slowly taken from me: the freedom to laugh, to play, and to simply enjoy the people I love.

The second value that has deeply enriched my life is Wise Stewardship. The more I’ve reflected on this value, the more I realize it extends far beyond managing money.

Wise stewardship is recognizing that everything we have, our time, talents, relationships, opportunities, health, and even our life itself, is a trust. 

We are accountable for how we use what has been entrusted to us.

For me, wise stewardship means asking better questions: Am I using my time wisely? Am I investing in my family? Am I developing the gifts God has given me? Am I serving others with the knowledge and experiences I’ve gained? Am I leaving people and places better than I found them?

This value has transformed the way I make decisions. Instead of simply asking, “What do I want?” I now ask, “What is the most responsible thing I can do with what I’ve been given?”

After spending nineteen years incarcerated, I no longer want to waste the opportunities I’ve been blessed with. Every day is a chance to become a better husband, father, mentor, student, and servant of God. Wise stewardship reminds me that success is not measured by what we possess, but by how faithfully we use what has been entrusted to us.

As I continue rebuilding my life, I carry these values with me every day. They have influenced the way I lead my family, the way I serve my community, and the way I approach my future.

To everyone who pours into the lives of participants through PEP, thank you. Your investment reaches far beyond graduation. The seeds you plant continue to grow in homes, families, communities, and future generations.

I am living proof that transformation is possible. I’m grateful to PEP for being part of that journey, and I pray that I will continue to steward what I’ve been given in a way that honors both the opportunities I’ve received and the responsibility that comes with them.

Sincerely,

Armando P.

Aka Goofy Hotdog