Empowering People
& Revitalizing the Community

LAEDA Visits Fort Dix to Teach Future Returning Citizens Skills for When They Return Home

Posted on 5/2/2016 by EDTP Coordinator
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On April 26, 2016, LAEDA was invited by the FCI Fort Dix Education Department to offer its services to a group of participants within the federal correctional institution. Ray Lamboy, President and Chief Executive Officer of LAEDA, felt it was a great opportunity to provide guidance to a group of men who were incarcerated within the walls of FCI Fort Dix. Also, he felt it would be fascinating to explore how entrepreneurship could possibly change the lives of these individuals once they have left the correctional facility.

Although, Mr. Lamboy and the LAEDA organization did not know what expect when embarking on this new venture, we found an overwhelming interest in our services.  There were over 70 individuals who wanted to participate in LAEDA’s entrepreneurial workshop.  Since the assigned location could only accommodate a maximum of 45 people, many wanted to be informed of any cancellations or even be placed on a waiting list.  It seemed as if all of these individuals had taken an interest in entrepreneurship as a means of sustaining themselves once they moved beyond federal prison.  Since most of them had already participated in a myriad of entrepreneurship classes provided by the FCI Fort Dix Education Department, our presentation of the ABC’s of Starting a Small Business seminar was sure to be a success.

Once Mr. Lamboy and Jamila Powell, EDTP Technical Coordinator, entered the facility, they were pleased to find a room packed with 45 well-mannered men whose entrepreneurial interests including health and wellness, barbering, live audio engineering, and computer aided drafting.  There were even a few who had operated successful businesses in the past.  These men were very eager to formulate all of the ideas they had generated into tangible business plans.  Moreover, they were optimistic that they could take all the information learned in this workshop as well as others, ranging from marketing to ethics, and apply it in their respective hometowns.
 
Upon our exit from FCI Fort Dix, the head of the Education Department, offered these words, “The difference between this facility and others is that all of these men will eventually be going home.”   This seminar could be viewed as LAEDA extending hope, humility, and help to these men so they could be productive members of society once they were able to “go home”.  
 
  


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