Special Edition 2026 | Finish the Village & What's Next
THE NEXT PHASE OF RESTORATION
Isaiah 61:1 He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.
CONTENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 03
Melissa's Comeback Story
04
Who We are & Our Why
05
7x Better Than the National Average
06
Without JUMPSTART SC
08
Finishing the Village & What's Next
10
The Most Dangerous Gap
12
Gospel Outposts in Your Community
14
Social Enterprises
ONE GRADUATE. ONE HOME. ONE CHURCH. ONE JOB. ONE COMMUNITY. ONE RESTORED LIFE AT A TIME. 18
Why Invest
20
Support Where Your Heart Is
I BELIEVED MY LIFE WAS OVER AT 20. Melissa Robbins
At twenty, Melissa believed she had thrown her future away. She lived in a brutal childhood spent in survival mode, and one irreversible moment seemed to seal it. Hope for a better future was never in the cards for her. But that lie was from the enemy, and prison wasn't the end of her story. Through faith and the JUMPSTART SC community, a place to stay, food to eat, and people walking beside her, Melissa found her way back. "And I am still saying praise the Lord, at my lowest He was there."
SCAN TO WATCH MELISSA'S STORY
WHO WE ARE & OUR WHY OUR MISSION We disciple the incarcerated and assist returning citizens with re-entry services in partnership with donors, churches, and community partners.
OUR VISION Powered by the gospel of Jesus Christ and with men and women serving as His hands and feet, we imagine a day when the back of recidivism is broken in South Carolina, our nation, and beyond.
58%
OF OUR STAFF HAS BEEN INCARCERATED & TRANSFORMED BY THE GRACE OF GOD IN THEIR LIVES.
As a team, we are uniquely gifted to serve this group of men and women in a way few others could. We welcome anyone into this work who has a heart for this ministry, but being able to look our participants in the eye and know where they've been carries real weight in our day-to-day. God uses our mess for his message to the brokenhearted: with Christ their future is greater than their past.
OUR CORE VALUES:
Love God & Love People
Live & Work for God's Applause
Collaborate, Innovate, & Implement Best Practices
Have Fun While Giving Our Best
Measure & Celebrate Results
RECIDIVISM REPORT: UPDATED 2025
7X BETTER THAN THE NATIONAL AVERAGE
Restoration is not a theory, it's a life you can meet. We serve 19 out of 22 prisons across South Carolina.
99.3%
OF THOSE WHO STAY 3+ MONTHS, DO NOT RETURN TO PRISON WITHIN 3 YEARS
56%
65%
Didn’t Graduate High School
Of Participants are Parents
96%
OF INSIDE PROGRAM GRADUATES DO NOT RETURN TO PRISON IN 3 YEARS
RECIDIVISM RATE COMPARISION:
27%
17%
4%
National
South Carolina
JUMPSTART SC
WITHOUT JUMPSTART SC, PEOPLE LEAVE PRISON HOMELESS. We have 95 housing applicants just this year alone, and 1,760+ since opening in 2020.
Melissa's story is not rare. For every graduate who walks out of prison, the release day is the moment the clock starts at 0. You have no money, no ID, no home, no job waiting for you, and this clock is purely survival. Questions plague you:
Where will my next meal come from? If it's too cold, where will I go? Will someone take a risk hiring me? What do I do if I can't make it? Is my best chance of survival to go back?
~6,000 INMATES WILL LEAVE PRISON EACH YEAR
ADVAN CI N G OUR IMPAC T
2008
2010s
2026
NEXT
PRISON DISCIPLESHIP
REENTRY PROGRAMS
RESTORATION VILLAGE
ALUMNI HOUSING & ENTERPRISE
Inside the walls. Where it began.
Transitional support following release.
Property & resources for 96 occupants to thrive during transitional period.
Continuing in support & sustainability.
TURNING A DREAM INTO A REALITY
FINISHING THE VILLAGE & WHAT'S NEXT Finishing the Village isn't only about completing homes. It's about building a program that can sustain itself. Every home we finish becomes an engine for lasting impact, generating roughly $30,000 a year in ongoing revenue that flows directly back to fund our transitional program. That means each completed home helps cover the real costs of walking alongside the men and women who come to us: a place to stay, food to eat, mentorship, and a path forward. Instead of relying entirely on year-to-year fundraising, we build a foundation that lasts. Here's where we stand:
19
3
$285,000
$30,000
Homes Purchased
Homes Remaining
Cost to Purchase & Furnish a Home
Yearly Ongoing Revenue Per Home
NOW, THE QUESTION ON EVERYONE'S MIND: "WHAT'S NEXT?" After much prayer and thoughtful consideration, our team and board have felt called to take on a need we've seen for years. For a long time, we simply didn't have the infrastructure or statewide community support across South Carolina to meet it. Now, by God's provision, we do. Over the next four years, we will expand our reach throughout South Carolina by adding alumni housing and launching a new social enterprise: property services. This new venture will help sustain our mission while giving participants who long to work with their hands the chance to learn real trade skills. Alumni Housing & Property Services Enterprise Coming 2027
THE MOST DANGEROUS GAP MAY COME AFTER GRADUATION Graduates complete the program and still face housing instability that threatens everything they've rebuilt.
First 30 Days Local & Onsite Community Church Connection & Mentorship Employment Financial Stability
Independent Dependence
Graduation !
THE GAP
THE HOUSING BARRIER Record · Credit · Income · Registry · No Rental History
Without Stable Housing: Fragile employment
Vulnerable recovery
Inconsistent church ties
Higher recidivism risk
Delayed family restoration
PLANT A GOSPEL OUTPOST IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Life-on-life discipleship with visible fruit in your neighborhood. We've heard it so many times: "I'd love to serve in the outside program, but we're just too far away to really make it work." And honestly? We get it. Not everyone lives down the road in Wellford, South Carolina, but distance shouldn't be the thing that keeps you from showing up for someone. So here's the beautiful part. What if you could pour into just one life, right where you already are, at your church, in your own community? That's the whole heart behind these homes. They are meant to be so much more than wood and wire. They're meant to be a ministry, a way for our church family to reach out and stay close, to actually walk beside someone as they find their footing again after the program. Because nobody should have to rebuild alone.
"A church circle helps alumni become known as people, not labels."
FROM SPARTANBURG STRENGTH TO STATEWIDE SUPPORT. Build from strength in the Upstate, then expand with staff and church support into the Midlands and the Lowcountry.
2026
DEMONSTRATION
2027 -2028
UPSTATE SCALE
2029
MIDLANDS
2030
LOWCOUNTRY
2-3 Homes in Greenville / Spartanburg
8 Purchased Homes in Greenville / Spartanburg
6 Homes + Regional Staff & Church Circles
6 Homes + Statewide Footprint
PROPERTY INVESTMENTS MEAN
DONOR DOLLARS BECOME DURABLE MISSION ASSETS Build from strength in the Upstate, then expand with staff and church support into the Midlands and the Lowcountry.
Projected Equity Growth
REAL-ESTATE VALUE, IN MILLIONS
BY 2030, THE MODEL CREATES
24+
$14.5M
Homes in South Carolina
$11.0M $8.10M $8.27M
96
Total Beds
$6.21M $4.64M
$8.27M
Real Estate Value 2030
Equity
2035
2040
$4.64M
Projected Equity
Total Value
Planning assumptions: 3% appreciation, 25% down, 30-year amortization, 24 total homes by 2030.
We're looking for well-built, modestly priced homes, generally in the $225,000 to $325,000 range, in the communities we serve across South Carolina. Every purchase is chosen with care. We put down significant equity, set aside funds for repairs and upkeep, and only move forward on homes that can sustain themselves over time. Every home becomes a lasting, stable asset that serves families for years to come.
TOP COUNTIES GRADUATES ARE FROM: Greenville
Spartanburg
Charleston
York
Lexington
Dorchester
Richland
Florence
BUILDING TOWARD SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH SOCIAL ENTERPRISE. Our goal as an organization has always been, and will remain, to serve our participants well while building toward long-term sustainability. We are committed to using every resource we have to fully equip participants for life beyond the walls. That means continuing to grow our social enterprises as a source of revenue for the organization while creating hands-on trade training opportunities for the people we serve. People equipped to reflect God's glory through their work. In 2027, we will launch another social enterprise in conjuction with our graduate housing expansion across South Carolina: Property Services
"
Property services won't just be upkeep. It will be vocational training, employment, and earned revenue. Stewarding homes while developing people.
Maintenance Advances Mission:
$18+
5
$250K
Pathway Beyond Livable Wage
Marketable Specializations
Annual Social Enterprise Investment for Growth
LANDSCAPING Since 2022
FEE FOR SERVICE Since 2022
CATERING & EVENTS Since 2025
PROPERTY SERVICES Coming 2027
WHY DO YOU I The Trail of Tears
The Linchpin
"I have spent my entire legal career working in the criminal justice system and the past two decades working in corrections. I've seen far too many offenders walk off the buses and back through the gates for the second or even third time. As sad as that was, it was even sadder knowing that each one left an unseen trail of pain and broken lives. Recidivism costs us all and with limited resources and competing priorities, no prison system can reach and reform every offender before release.
"I spent 27 years as a reporter in Greenville, then years leading an inner-city ministry. I thought I understood homelessness. What I didn't expect were the people who were otherwise healthy, formerly incarcerated, and simply could not find a job or a place to live. Our society says you've paid your debt, but we sure don't act like it.
JUMPSTART SC was built to fill in those gaps and to break the back of recidivism. It provides a proven, disciplined approach to reformation and rehabilitation. On the front end JUMPSTART SC provides a God-centered foundation, mentorship, and a proven, cognitive-behavioral approach to change. On the back end they provide a job, a place to live, and a community. Just like I've watched far too many men and women come back to prison, I have also seen thousands leave and never come back. No other organization and no other program facilitates that lasting reformation better.
Employment was the linchpin, and it was the one thing we could never crack. We were catching people after they'd already hit the streets. JUMPSTART SC is the missing piece we never had. It runs through the prisons and reaches people on the front end, before they ever become homeless in Spartanburg or Greenville or who knows where else.
In corrections, we measure everything. JUMPSTART SC now reaches into most every South Carolina prison, reaching thousands of inmates. With a best-in-class recidivism rate of less than 4%, JUMPSTART SC leads the nation and has helped our state reduce our recidivism rate to one of the lowest in the nation. That’s why I invest in JUMPSTART SC."
Jon Ozmint Former Director of Corrections
When people ask me where to give, this is one of my top two recommendations every time. They're laser-focused, they're practical, and they don't back away from the gospel. You can do amazing things with a little when the people running it are this grounded. That's why I invest here, and why I'd tell anyone to do the same."
Deb Richardson-Moore Former Greenville News reporter, Retired Pastor of Triune Mercy Center
INVEST HERE? The 96 and the 1
The Generational Impact
"As a software developer, I spend my days measuring what works and what doesn't. I look for proven results and systems that actually deliver. That's exactly what drew me to JUMPSTART SC.
"When someone walks out of prison, we picture relief. Freedom. But freedom can be terrifying when you've never learned how to live in it. How do you start over with nothing? Those are the moments most of us never think about, and they're the moments that decide whether someone makes it.
When I saw a 96% success rate for men and women coming out of prison, people a lot of the world had already written off, I knew this wasn't hope by accident. It was hope by design. A proven process that returns something no spreadsheet can fully capture: restored lives, reunited families, and children who now get a different future than the one they were headed toward. That's the return I want to invest in, not because it's easy, but because it multiplies. You pour into one life, and it changes a family, a neighborhood, a generation. In my world, we'd call that the best kind of ROI. Here, we call it Kingdom ROI. I invest in JUMPSTART SC because it works, and because the people it reaches are worth every dollar. I'd invite you to do the same."
That's what moves me about JUMPSTART SC. It doesn't stop at the gate. It walks with people while they learn to live free, surrounds them with a community that shows up, and gives them a place they belong. And it doesn't only change the man or woman in the program. It changes their children, who now grow up watching a parent build a different life. The cycle that could have been handed down is broken instead through the gospel lived out. That's the kind of hope I want to be part of, the kind that doesn't stop with one person but multiplies through a whole family and into the next generation in South Carolina. I invest because a restored life doesn't just impact one life. Each life touches another."
Mark Essex
Karen Essex
Board Member, Software Entrepreneur
Indigo Hope Foundation – Co-founder
PROPERTY INVESTMENTS MEAN
SUPPORT WHERE YOUR HEART IS You can't help everyone, but for one person your support can mean everything. Know exactly where your gift is going:
$25 / Month Sponsor Curriculum for a New Participant
$100 / Month Prison Discipleship Program Support
$75 Sponsor a Resume & Job Interview Training
$200 Reentry Identity Packet: Birth Certificate, SS Card, and ID
$1,000 Cost of Furnishing a New Bedroom
$8,687 Reentry Readiness Kit: Clothes, Food, ID & Paperwork, Job Readiness Prep, Transportation, Case Management Support
$11,526 Program Cost Per Prison Annually
$285,000 Cost Per Home To Build & Furnish
i
Interested in donating property or finacially toward alumni housing?
$75,000 - $300,000 GIVE 35% OF A HOME'S PURCHASE PRICE & SECURE NAMING RIGHTS
SCAN TO GIVE ONLINE!
For more information contact directly: cary.sanders@jumpstartvision.org
Visit us Online at JUMPSTARTSC.ORG
Mailing Address: JUMPSTART SC PO Box 1050; Spartanburg, SC 29304 SCAN TO LEARN MORE!