reentry Archives - Business RadioX ®

Revolutionizing the Reentry Process for the Formerly Incarcerated, with Andre Peart, Untapped Solutions

September 11, 2023 by John Ray

North Fulton Business Radio

Revolutionizing the Reentry Process for the Formerly Incarcerated, with Andre Peart, Untapped Solutions

00:00 /

North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 694)

Founder and CEO of Untapped Solutions, Andre Peart, joined host John Ray on North Fulton Business Radio to talk about how his company’s groundbreaking platform is helping formerly incarcerated individuals rebuild their lives faster and more efficiently, while giving companies ready access an under-resourced talent pool. They discussed Andre’s personal story that led to the founding of Untapped Solutions, how the platform works, benefits such as higher loyalty which companies receive from hiring the formerly incarcerated, success stories, and much more.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

Untapped Solutions

Untapped Solutions is a groundbreaking platform revolutionizing the reentry process for formerly incarcerated individuals by connecting them with the resources, services, and employers they need to rebuild their lives. Founded in 2020 by Andre Peart, Untapped Solutions has grown into an innovative force backed by Techstars and Cox Communications enterprise, striving to create meaningful social impact through technology.

At Untapped Solutions, we understand the challenges faced by the formerly incarcerated, as well as the organizations and employers dedicated to supporting their reintegration into society. Our mission is to empower case worker-driven organizations, employers, and the formerly incarcerated by streamlining the reentry process and building a strong, supportive network.

Our platform leverages cutting-edge AI technology to enhance the client experience and reduce staff fatigue. By automating key tasks, such as identifying client needs, employment status, and skill requirements, we enable organizations to make faster, more accurate referrals to relevant stakeholders. With our internal impact report tool, tracking progress and updates on referrals becomes seamless and efficient.

For employers, Untapped Solutions offers an AI-powered job board that matches open roles with candidates who possess the required skills or are currently enrolled in relevant training programs. By partnering with us, employers can tap into a diverse, skilled talent pool of formerly incarcerated individuals, while also providing them the support they need to overcome personal challenges and excel in their work lives.

Untapped Solutions’ LinkedIn-style professional network creates an exclusive space for the formerly incarcerated, where they can connect with case worker-driven organizations and employers, access resources and skill training, and discover job opportunities tailored to their talents and aspirations.

Our vision is to reduce recidivism by 20% by 2030 through the power of technology, ultimately fostering a more inclusive, supportive, and successful society for all. Join us in our mission to transform lives and create lasting change for those seeking a fresh start.

Website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

Andre Peart, Founder and CEO, Untapped Solutions

Andre Peart Untapped Solutions — **Andre Peart, Founder & CEO, Untapped Solutions**

Andre Peart was born in 1990 in Westchester, New York, and raised in the city of Yonkers during the uprising of crime and drugs that plagued the city. As a teen, he was stuck in the center of a crime ridiculed neighborhood and found his way out through writing war-fiction novels in his room where he silenced the sirens and screams. He continued to use writing as a gateway through high school and onto college, where he drifted his writing genre to the world of crime fiction. Andre changed his genre over to crime, but also his endeavors, which ended his college journey early and landed him in New York State Prison for five years.

Unlike many others, Andre had the skill of mentally escaping rough environments. And so he did, writing seven novels, three short stories, and finishing his degree through a prison college program. Andre has published two short stories and founded Untapped Solutions (formerly ConConnect), the world’s first social network for formerly incarcerated men and women to get connected with valuable resources upon release. He has continued to write and plans to drop his novels in due time.

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

Tell us about you and your story, how you came to create Untapped Solutions?
How does Untapped Solutions work?
Who does this platform help?
What are the benefits of hiring these populations for employers?
What kinds of businesses are you working with?
Once someone is hired, is there a support system that helps navigate starting a new job?

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn, and others.

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Since 2000, Office Angels® has been restoring joy to the life of small business owners, enabling them to focus on what they do best. At the same time, we honor and support at-home experts who wish to continue working on an as-needed basis. Not a temp firm or a placement service, Office Angels matches a business owner’s support needs with Angels who have the talent and experience necessary to handle work that is essential to creating and maintaining a successful small business. Need help with administrative tasks, bookkeeping, marketing, presentations, workshops, speaking engagements, and more? Visit us at https://officeangels.us/.

Alison Rapping and Brandy Smith with Arouet E5

June 1, 2023 by Karen

Alison-Rapping-and-Brandy-Smith-with-Arouet-feature

Deep Impact Leadership

Alison Rapping and Brandy Smith with Arouet E5

00:00 /

Alison Rapping and Brandy Smith with Arouet E5

Arouet Foundation is a 501(c)(3) Arizona nonprofit corporation whose mission is to provide education assistance, workforce development and job training to women who have been involved in the justice system. In 2011, Arouet was formed to take over these activities to ensure we were reaching a broader group of women.

Arouet has proven that recidivism can be substantially reduced by more than 75%, with programs that emphasize education, job skills, and post-release work opportunities. Arouet has a goal of putting more people to work, and thereby reducing the recidivism rates. Arouet currently has a recidivism rate of under 7%.

Alison Rapping is CEO of the Arouet Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting, mentoring, and training women involved in the justice system. She is also President of Alison Rapping and Associates, a strategy consulting firm that provides consultancy to community benefit organizations in the United States and Africa.

A recognized leader in the nonprofit community, she brings more than 25 years of nonprofit experience to her work. She supports nonprofits and community collaborations to be effective, innovative and well-resourced, and specializes in board development, fund development, advocacy, nonprofit management and program design and implementation.

Ms. Rapping served as CEO of the Alliance for Arizona Nonprofits, where she oversaw the successful launch of this new statewide organization focused on promoting, supporting, and serving Arizona’s nonprofit community.

She invested thirteen years of her professional career with HandsOn Greater Phoenix, a nonprofit dedicated to mobilizing volunteers and developing and managing innovative community programs. While at HOGP, she served on the National Board of Directors for HandsOn Network.

On behalf of Hands-on Network, Alison traveled to Zimbabwe, South Africa, Korea, and the Gulf Coast to support and provide organizational development and fundraising training to organizations interested in creating HandsOn Network models of service.

Ms. Rapping served as the Vice Chair for the City of Phoenix Commission on Housing and Neighborhoods and has been a member of the City of Phoenix Bond Committee, the Chair of the City of Phoenix CDGB review panel; she has also served on the board of directors for numerous community organizations.

She was named one of The Business Journal’s ‘40 Under 40’ emerging leaders. and is a graduate of Valley Leadership. Ms. Rapping received her MPA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

Brandy Smith is a 51-year-old California native but has lived in Arizona for almost 35 years. A lifelong, untreated substance abuse problem and a list of white-collar offenses led her to 3 terms of incarceration for 15 years. She was released in 2017 and in January of 2019 finally ended a 17-year cycle caught in the criminal justice system.

Her passion for second chances and reentry make her a perfect fit to be the program and outreach manager at Arouet. She is now responsible for a comprehensive reentry program for incarcerated women to have a fighting chance to reunite with their families and communities and stop the cycle of recidivism.

As a vocal advocate for recovery (she’s celebrating 11 years clean) and sentencing reform, when she isn’t out trying to change the world, she enjoys spending time with her husband on their new boat handing out with her dogs binge watching shows on her favorite streaming sites.

Follow Arouet on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

ABOUT Deep Impact Leadership The Art of the Connected Conversation

Negativity, sabotage, self doubt, and more are a part of cyclical thinking, leading to cyclical results. The National Science Foundation summarized a study on human thoughts per day. It is said that the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those thousands of thoughts, 80% are negative, and 95% are the very same repetitive thoughts as the day before.

If our minds are prone to negative and cyclical thinking, how do we move beyond this mundane programming to achieve professional and organizational success and significance?

We must master our intrapersonal and interpersonal communication. Impactful leadership requires effective communication within ourselves and with others.

This radio show and podcast is dedicated to exploring the magic in “connected conversations”. Listen in as these pros share the tips, tricks, strategies and disciplines that keep them at the top of their game day-in and day-out serving their industries at the highest levels.

About Your Host

Success. It is like a puzzle. You must have the puzzle box lid to see the big picture and know what your life, influence, income, and reach should be.

No matter if we are talking about:

How to take your skillset and grow it into a multi-million dollar business.
How to take your business brilliance and build it into lifelong influence and buying customers.
How to overcome those moments of overwhelm and self-sabotage (all together or at least a heck of a lot faster), so you can hit those next levels of success sooner and stronger.

Karen Nowicki has you covered.

The ultimate problem solver and solution finder, Karen’s natural perspective is understanding what you want, need, and how to make it a reality.

With advanced training and certifications in several modalities and disciplinary specialization, including: Facilitative Leadership, Organizational Development, Strategic Planning, Trauma Integration & Shadow Integration, Karen knows the business of business as well as the business of people. She will nudge you, walk alongside you, and guide you along the way.

No matter if you are building your industry influence, client relationships, or working on how to grow, scale, or accelerate your business to the next level, Karen is dedicated to helping you build your success puzzle while showing you the hidden opportunities that await.

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

The Excitant and The Igniter – aka The 2 Dudes E11

September 6, 2022 by Karen

E11-The-Excitant-and-The-Igniter-aka-The-2-Dudes-feature

Phoenix Business Radio

The Excitant and The Igniter - aka The 2 Dudes E11

00:00 /

The Excitant and The Igniter – aka The 2 Dudes E11

Kyle McIntosh of the Mac6 co-working space in Tempe faced a major problem. Tenants of the building began to fear for their safety and were moving out due to a growing homeless population in the area. Kyle & community leader Darren Chapman put their heads together to come up with a proactive solution that not only alleviated the problem but also benefited the the displaced individuals taking up residence.

Carla explores the idea of “Conscious Capitalism” in this episode of Smashing Through Walls with her guests Kyle and Darren (aka Dude 1 & Dude 2). Together, the three take listeners on a journey of positive impact & change through relationships. They discuss how commercial real estate can institute concepts that push the community in a positive direction.

The Tiger Mountain Foundation, led by Darren Chapman installs community gardens with native, food producing plants in spaces that you might not expect to find them and uses these gardens to create a sense of community pride and lift up people in need.

What if you could smash down some walls and create an effective solution of social entrepreneurism? Join Carla and her guests Kyle & Darren to find out exactly what that means, how they did it, and and the major positive impact it is having on their community!

TigerMountain Foundation converts space into edible landscaping, workforce development and lifestyle transition and transformation opportunities.

Darren Chapman is a community pro-activist who has committed his life to helping people. He is Founder and CEO of TigerMountain Foundation (a.k.a. TMF), which has implemented Empowerment Initiatives to uplift communities and eliminate blight.

TMF’s initiatives are community garden / landscaping development, audio, visual and performance art, community service and volunteerism. The gardens promote healthy living and active lifestyles by feeding, engaging and enfranchising the community.

MAC6 Builds Better Communities Where People and Businesses Thrive. They do that through programs and spaces for growing businesses. The three things that make MAC6 completely unique from anything else you’ll find are Growth, Flexibility, and Community.

1) Growth: From the perspective of, you will be in a Place filled with other growing and focused companies, surrounded by programs and resources to take you to the next level.

2) Flexibility: From the perspective of, The most flexible work spaces in Arizona, getting you laser focused on what you love to do and building your business with the freedom to not need to know what it may look like tomorrow let alone in three years.

3) Community: From the perspective of, growing your team and your business in a high performing and healthy environment, while being connected with the MAC6 Community of over 100 businesses.

Located in Tempe, 10 minutes from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and 15 minutes from Arizona State University, the MAC6 Entrepreneurial campus offers 150,000 square feet of space including traditional and non-traditional private office suites, a variety of coworking office space solutions, and a unique light co-manufacturing space; all in service to growth-oriented entrepreneurs, startups, and mid-market.

With a background in marketing, in various for profit and not for profit companies, Kyle McIntosh wondered, “How can I pair the passion and commitment to community progress of a non-profit with the sustainability and reach of a for profit company?”

From this question and perspective a mission evolved to tear down the false distinction between the two sectors and to promote companies with Conscious Capitalism® business models through MAC6.

Kyle is the President and Creative Excitant of MAC6. MAC6 Builds Better Communities where People and Businesses Thrive, in commercial office buildings, co-working spaces, and co-manufacturing space. Additionally, he sits on the board of Conscious Capitalism Arizona, telling the stories of good businesses in Arizona.

Kyle loves Arizona and wants to see us all collectively find great success based on the awesome things that are happening here every day.

Connect with Kyle on LinkedIn and follow MAC6 on Facebook and Instagram.

About the Show

Smashing Through Walls is geared toward a guide through complex commercial real estate and finance topics while adding humor and anecdotes along the way. Discover what is going on in the valley and beyond with host Carla Magee, broker at MHG Commercial.

About Our Host

Carla Magee’s background is designed with the investor in mind. After obtaining her finance degree from the University of Washington in Seattle, she worked for large corporations like Boeing and Microsoft. With a critical eye and flair for analytics, she was able to shave millions in lost profits, managing cross-functional teams by utilizing her Green Belt in Six Sigma and Masters Certification in Project Management.

Ultimately she realized that she couldn’t be contained in an office environment working for the corporate world. Being an investor herself, she came into real estate as an investment & multifamily property specialist, effectively applying her education & skillset. Carla excels in helping investors make sound decisions for their financial goals, in real estate negotiations, and takes deep pride in educating homebuyers and sellers.

On a personal note, Carla is a busy wife & mother to two daughters. In addition to an ever growing career and podcast, she also enjoys volunteering and being active in the community. She has a deep love for Arizona and although she travels whenever possible, she always finds her way back to the beautiful Sonoran Desert.

Connect with Carla on LinkedIn.

About Our Sponsor

MHG Commercial emerged from the highly successful and innovative residential brokerage: My Home Group. MHG Commercial’s vetted and experienced advisors have a wide range of complementary professional expertise that span over 100 years of cumulative experience.

Encompassing every aspect of commercial real estate from office to industrial development, raw land to luxury commercial, and multifamily to subdivision development. We excel at out of the box thinking and transactions that require a more hands-on approach and ingenuity.

No matter the property type or service need, our commercial advisors are committed to your objectives. Combined with business finesse and unsurpassed market intelligence, MHG Commercial brokers help you determine and surpass your business goals.

Follow MHG Commercial on Facebook and Instagram.