For justice-impacted people rebuilding their lives
Second Chance Contractor is a developing education pilot for people who are incarcerated or returning home. It connects existing skills with practical preparation for business ownership and government contracting. Start with manageable work, build readiness, and grow at a pace you can sustain.
J. W. Lee Consulting
The opportunity
Welding. HVAC. Janitorial work. Plumbing. Skills gained through employment, vocational training, or incarceration can provide a starting point for a business. Carpentry, landscaping, and building maintenance offer other examples of transferable skills.
The next step is understanding what it takes to offer a service responsibly: the work you can perform, the tools and resources you need, the requirements to verify, and the customers you could serve. Small local public purchases and subcontracts are routes to explore alongside the wider government market.
People rebuilding after incarceration deserve a practical chance to turn their skills into a business they can own and sustain.
Why this work is personal
My first government contract was a $1,000 purchase order for trash receptacles. I went on to build an international contracting enterprise, with hands-on operations in the United States and overseas. I also experienced incarceration and the difficult work of rebuilding.
I bring both experiences to this program. I want people to see how a skill they already have could become a business, and to understand the preparation, judgment, and responsibility ownership requires.
Justin W. Lee brings a personal understanding of starting again together with the operating experience to make the instruction practical.
What participants work on
These learning areas connect a business idea with practical decisions. Next steps reflect each participant’s skills, resources, circumstances, and readiness.
Identify useful skills and turn them into a clear service offering. Consider experience, equipment, resources, and gaps before deciding what work to pursue.
Explore local government purchases and subcontracting, alongside the broader government market. Learn where requirements appear, how buyers describe their needs, and how to judge whether an opportunity fits your ability to deliver.
Work through estimating costs, planning delivery, keeping records, communicating with customers, and following requirements. Identify licensing, registration, and eligibility questions that need qualified guidance.
Use a readiness assessment, draft capability statement, and 30- and 90-day plans to organize priorities. Revisit those plans as circumstances and readiness change. A $500, $1,000, or $2,000 job can make a learning exercise concrete. These figures are illustrations, not available opportunities, promised awards, or participant results.
Skills, resources, responsibilities, and gaps.
A clear service offering and capacity to perform.
Practical priorities matched to individual readiness.
Your facilitator
Business ownership & government contracting
J. W. Lee Consulting
Justin connects experience in U.S. and international government contracting with a personal understanding of incarceration and rebuilding. That combination makes the mission personal and grounds the instruction in the demands of real work.
His instruction centers on the decisions behind ownership: what to offer, what to pursue, and how to prepare for the responsibility of performing.
justin@jwleeconsulting.comThe larger ambition
The long-term ambition is for participants to build sustainable businesses, earn income, and create opportunities for others. A business may eventually hire locally, work with local suppliers, and open doors for others returning home.
Those possibilities give the work its purpose: greater independence, a stronger sense of ownership, and a contribution to the community. They are aims to work toward, with time and preparation.
For institutions and funders
For corrections, reentry, and workforce programs, this adds practical entrepreneurship preparation to the work of returning home. For funders, it offers a defined learning focus and concrete participant work around which to shape support. Begin with the people you serve: their skills, circumstances, access to resources, and readiness.
Second Chance Contractor is a developing education pilot. Participant population, format, schedule, cohort size, scope, pricing, and responsibilities are agreed before instruction begins.
Download the one-page capability statementBring the program to your community
Tell Justin about your program, the people you serve, and what you would like them to understand or prepare for. Start with a conversation about fit and scope.