COMMUNITY ENTREPRENEURS FOUNDATION, INC.
The Community Entrepreneurs Foundation, Inc. (CEF) is a non-profit organization under construction by Hepworth, Pendry and Katkish. Our mission is to help offenders and ex-offenders returning to the community establish and run legitimate businesses. CEF will recruit clients through the United States Probation Office, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the District of Columbia Department of Corrections, Court Services Offender Supervision Agency, and other rehabilitation programs.
Clients must be self-disciplined individuals who thrive on challenge and accountability. They must be committed to succeed - to take full advantage of this re-entry program, and the opportunity it offers to transform their lives.
CEF offers clients value-based business education, training and mentoring, to enable them to productively re-enter society. The program's aim is to offer our clients meaningful ways to serve their community and care for themselves and their families and to reduce the rate of return to prison, which is now at an estimated 85% nationally. CEF will recruit executives and other professionals, to serve as mentors to the clients, to help them develop the skills and experience they need to run their own businesses. The program will have a cooperative relationship with area business schools and colleges, to help the clients develop their business plans, marketing studies, and organizational profiles.
Embracing a pioneering spirit, CEF believes that each client who benefits from the program has a responsibility to be of service to others in the program, and the community as a whole. Each client will be expected to use what she/he gains from the program to mentor other clients and to contribute to the community.
CEF's mission is to stimulate positive life transformation so that clients can become successful small business owners and assets to their communities. Rather than persons cast off by society, our clients become confident, capable, hopeful people who care for their families responsibly and who contribute to the overall good. CEF will work with families to encourage their support for the clients' transformation from offender to successful business owner and successful community benefactor. CEF's goal is no less than reclaiming the human spirit.
CEF expects to receive its funding from foundations, corporations, private donors and government agencies.
