From Next City:

For Juan Reid, starting a worker cooperative opened the door to legal work, business ownership and healing from trauma after incarceration. A new local initiative promises to help scale the business so it can offer the same to others coming out of the criminal justice system. Growing up in a Washington, D.C. neighborhood where “there was nothing but drugs and violence,” Reid says he was in and out of the criminal justice system for most of his early life. Starting at age 18, he spent 14 years in prison — the last seven in solitary confinement.

Get the full story here:

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/spreading-the-good-news-of-worker-owned-businesses-in-dc