About Isaiah Foundation
Supporting justice-impacted individuals with work, stability, and community.
Income Pathways
Reintegration is not possible without income. Isaiah Foundation focuses on creating immediate, legal, and practical ways to earn for people coming out of the justice system without upfront investment or gatekeeping.
We currently work through two primary income pathways.
Our rehabilitation programs focus on skill-building and personal growth for participants.
Why We Start With Income
At Isaiah Foundation, we begin with income not because it is the end goal, but because it is the condition that makes every other goal possible. People leaving the justice system are often expected to demonstrate stability, responsibility, and reform while lacking the most basic means to survive.
Without income, even the strongest intentions collapse under the pressure of housing insecurity, social stigma, legal costs, and daily uncertainty. In that context, conversations about rehabilitation, mental health, or long-term planning become aspirational at best and cruel at worst.
Our income pathways are designed to interrupt this cycle at its earliest point. By enabling people to earn quickly, legally, and without upfront investment, we create space for dignity to return, space to breathe, to plan, and to imagine a future not dictated by accusation or confinement.
This approach reflects our understanding of restoration: freedom is not only the absence of prison walls, but the presence of real opportunity. Work is not a reward for reform; it is the foundation that allows reform, healing, and reintegration to take root.
How Participants Join Our Programmes
Participation in Isaiah Foundation’s programmes begins with a simple principle: access should not depend on proving worthiness. We work with people who are exiting or navigating the justice system including those on bail, acquitted, or recently released. Entry into our income pathways does not require prior experience, capital, or credentials. Instead, we focus on readiness to work, willingness to engage honestly, and the practical realities of each person’s situation.
Our onboarding process is intentionally light-touch but deliberate. We spend time understanding what stage of transition a person is in, what immediate constraints they face, and which pathway is most appropriate. This is not an interview to judge character or past actions, but a conversation to assess safety, support needs, and fit. Wherever possible, participants are introduced to earning opportunities quickly, alongside basic orientation and peer support, so that momentum is built early and confidence grows through action.
We recognise that reintegration is rarely linear. People may move between pathways, pause, or return as circumstances change. Participation is therefore flexible, grounded in mutual respect rather than rigid compliance. By meeting people where they are and removing unnecessary barriers to entry, we aim to make the first step after release a practical one toward income, stability, and the gradual rebuilding of life on their own terms.
Micro-Entrepreneurship Through Sales
This pathway is built for people who need to start earning immediately.
We provide participants with a ready-to-sell product (such as coffee or merchandise) along with access to sales channels including pop-ups, flea markets, and community events. Isaiah supports setup, basic sales guidance, and marketing, but the work and earnings belong entirely to the individual.
There is no investment cost. Participants keep the profits they make, allowing income from the earliest days after release while building confidence, routine, and independence.
This model is simple by design: earn first, stabilise, then decide what comes next.
Tech Skills for Independent Work
For those able to engage in skill-based work, we offer rapid upskilling pathways into freelance digital work.
Participants receive free, focused training in areas such as:
Coding and website development
Graphic design
Data analysis
Prompt engineering and AI-assisted workflows
The emphasis is on practical, marketable skills, not long certifications. Alongside skill refinement, we support participants in setting up freelancer profiles, portfolios, and basic client-facing readiness so they can begin seeking paid work as quickly as possible.
This pathway is designed for flexibility allowing people to work independently, remotely, and at their own pace as stability increases.
For the Lord hears the needy
and does not despise his captive people.
Psalm 69:33
The Hope Is Dope Alliance is a global network of organisations working with formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted individuals to build pathways into entrepreneurship, livelihoods, and long-term independence. Across different contexts and countries, members of the Alliance share a common conviction: people coming out of the justice system do not lack potential; they lack access, opportunity, and systems that are willing to meet them where they are.
Isaiah Foundation’s work resonates deeply with this approach. Like the Alliance, we believe that economic participation is not a peripheral part of rehabilitation, but its foundation. Our income-first pathways, zero-investment models, and emphasis on agency over charity align closely with the Alliance’s focus on entrepreneurship as a tool for restoration rather than reward. Both Isaiah and the Hope Is Dope Alliance reject stigma-based models of reintegration, choosing instead to invest in practical opportunity, peer-led growth, and dignity through work.
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Our Transformative Team
Isaiah Foundation is led and staffed entirely by justice-impacted individuals.